Kingdom Hearts: Path of Shadows
by Cayne Kitsune
Summary: Riku dreams of Xion calling out for him and a something wanting to destroy them both. He chooses to set out to find her, alone and unaware of the dangers that follow. Can he brave the evils before him or will the shadows take his heart forever? R R plz
1. Path Revealed, Riku's Journey Begins!

Kingdom Hearts: Path of Shadows

Chapter 1: The Path Revealed, Riku's Journey Begins!

It always began the same as it always had for the past week; Riku would awaken from his sleep, sweating from a horrid dream and then attempt to figure it out to no avail. His dream played before his eyes, carrying him to the last time he had spoken to a rather peculiar Nobody who had no past, but only the memories she was made from; the memories of Riku's best friend, Sora.

_Xion... What are you trying to tell me?..._

His thoughts echoed for an answer, but they remained heard only by his own ears and unanswered all the same. Xion could be seen, in his dream, asleep yet reaching out to him as if to expect his hand to take hers and awaken her from her imprisoning slumber.

"Riku... Help m-..." Her words would be hindered by a distant and vicious howl of something that one would believe not to exist. Riku would then trace the howl to a towering form with none but dark yellow eyes glaring at him, motivating him to call Way To The Dawn to his hand. However, his Keyblade would not come, leaving Riku unarmed and vulnerable to the wrath of the dark entity that open its sinister maw to devour him and Xion both.

"Riku, please....." Xion pleaded weakly as Riku soon snapped awake. The next morning, Riku had come to a decision, "WHAT!? You're going to find Xion by yourself!?" Sora and Kairi were shocked as Riku told them of his dream and what he believed that he had to do in order to stop this cycle from repeating. He nodded and said,"Xion is in trouble, I might not know why or how she came back, but I want to help her all the same. I need to do this alone, guys... I'm sorry..." Sora simply grinned at his friend, "Hey, you know you can depend on us, right? Doesn't that mean WE can depend on YOU to come back in one piece?" Riku was taken back a little, but smirked as he said," You can be a real sap, you know that?" Kairi smiled as she interjected, "Just no disappearing acts, okay?" Riku nodded as he prepared his ship for departure, "No thanks, I think the last thing I want to do is leave you two lovebirds all alone." Kairi giggled at a blushing Sora as he yelled before Riku sped off into space, "Just call for us if you can't handle being the lone hero!"

"It's a good thing I kept a few Gummi ship plans on me, otherwise I'd have to hitchhike." Riku said to himself as he activated the auto-pilot. It had been a couple of hours since his departure and the lack of sleep from the past week had begun to take its toll on , he didn't have the same dream as before; it's possible that all the dream was meant for was to implore him to go on this an hour or so passed, Riku heard a loud thud echo from the right side of the cockpit that brought him out of his sleep and straight into a run for the pilot's seat. "What was that?" Riku searched left and right for the object that soon found itself in front of his vision. It appeared to be some kind of pod with an active distress beacon retrieving it, he opened it to find a video inside telling him about a mining ship, called the U.S.G. Ishimura, was seiged by her own crew after being taken over by... something... that had boarded the ship a week after they pulled up a strange red marker from the planet Aegis 7. The message was either incomplete or damaged because the message kept skipping when the woman inside it, cheif of security Alyssa Vincent as she called herself, said that the Ishimura and the marker must be destroyed. Following the fuel trail from the pod, Riku found the U.S.G. Ishimura and prepared to board it, completely unaware of the hell that waited within the bowels of the abandoned mining ship.


	2. Fear Of Things In The Dark

Chapter 2: Fear Of Things In The Dark

Riku exited his ship once the boarding sequence had been complete, carefully minding his steps in case there was an active security system he left the hangar, he noticed a small form on the ground next to bent down to pick up the thing to find it was fleshy, like a..."WHOA!!!!" Riku immediately dropped the dismembered hand as it made a sickening thud upon contact with the metal floor. Then he heard a shuffling noise, as if someone or something was limping close by. He turned to see a young man in an orange uniform, fatigued and insomniac by the sight of him, breathing heavily as if he had seen horrors beyond moral comprehension. Riku squinted to see him holding his wrist as he weakly scuffed his boots along the floor, thats when he noticed that something was missing; The young man turned to Riku's direction and fell on his knees where he crawled towards the dismembered hand and attempted to reattach it to the stump that was his wrist. Noticing Riku, he lunged for Riku's collar and pulled him close.

" Run away... they want our bodies... they want our flesh... our bone... our blood... All of my friends... my family... they were dead... then..." His whispering became a wail as he gripped his head in pain, "I cant take it anymore!! KILL ME!!! KILL ME KILL ME KILL ME!!!" Throwing him off, Riku punched his jaw and grabbed his collar, "What are you talking about!? Who's they?" The man didn't answer, only slipped out slowly from Riku's grip and pulled out a small object. Riku didn't move an inch, not wanting the man to get paranoid and pull the gun's trigger and make a rucus that might attract any unwanted company. "Please forgive me..." Was all he said as the man put the gun in his own mouth and pulled the trigger. A muffled gunshot echoed out of the hollowed head as fragments of the man's skull and brains shot out all over the just stood there, mortified at what had just happened,"What is all this... How can this be happening?..." Many other questions filled his head as he walked through the corridors of the Ishimura in search of the security room in hopes of finding out some answers. Upon his arrival, he heard muffled sounds coming from around the corner; he quickly opened the door and hid behind it as it closed silently before whatever was moving could see him. Through the small hole in the wall he saw the most horrific sight he had ever seen: A human-like form with a ripped-out stomach, an unhinged jaw, two small arms over the gapping hole in it's stomach, and two enormous spikes jutting out of the palms of what was once normal human arms. Slowly, Riku steadied his breathing, stepped back from the door, and activated the security monitors. Several hours passed as the videos ran their recorded memoires across the screen, telling all that had ravaged the innocence that once rang through the metal walls of the Ishimura. He learned that these creatures had been around since day one and have stayed in their holes all because of the Red Marker had remained where it had been on Aegis 7. Now it's nothing but living incarnation of the seventh circle of hell and virtually all of the crew members are either dead or one of those... whatever they were called.

_Necromorphs..._

Riku shook his head," Where'd that come from?" Unsure, he noticed a small blur on the screen to his far left. Rewinding it, he saw it was a small Necromorph crawling into the air duct and... that's when he heard a scuttling noise coming from above his head. A crash echoed behind him as he jumped to the side to avoid the flying grate as it clanged along the floor. Squinting, he tried to make out what had crashed through the gratem only to see the same creature from before, only this time it had him in its sights! It roared as it sprinted toward Riku, spikes poised to maim him to the bone as an aggresive roar thundered out from it. Rolling away from a savage strike, Riku quickly turned in the creature's direction and sliced its legs out from under it, making it slam into the ground with a sickening thud. Panting from the sudden shock, he turned to open the door only hear groaning and a shuffling sound from behind." Do you ever quit!?" A frustrated Riku yelled as the creature pulled itself towards him with its arms, completely ignorant of the fact that both its legs were gone. It leaped up, readied its claw, and swung... for a moment, Riku's appearance had altered; he had a black trench coat with white trim on the sleeves, around the collar, and down the back which had the took the shape of angel wings slowly changing into demon wings as they inched down the coats end. He also had black tribal-like marks around half teal, half amber eyes that ended with two tattered sheets that somewhat dangled behind his head like straps from a blindfold that had been shed not-so-long-ago. In his right hand was Way to the Dawn, but what was in the other was hard to make out because of the blinding light that surrounded it. He phased right through the Necromorph's body as he scolded venomously.

**"Is that the best you can do? What a dead waste of space..."** Riku's voice echoed with a dark monotone as he reverted to normal, dazed and confused, and saw what was left of the Necromorph: a stomach-churning mass of absolutely nothing close to human or humanoid remains. "Did I... did I do that?" Riku didn't want to stick around to find out, so he made his way to equipment bay to equip himself. He donned a metal-rippled shoulder pad that fit over the left shoulder of a black jacket with a pack that went down his back. Booting it up, he noticed that the pack began to glow a bright green, as did a small three-quarter circle on the right side of it. Upon reading the manuals, the gear was called the Resource Integration Gear or RIG for short and the small circle was called the Stasis gauge which is hooked to a small unit on his left hand and forearm. Stasis, the text continued, is an essential component to any RIG unit whose owner may experience difficulties in the long run aboard a vessel. Attached to the forearm portion of the Stasis unit was a light blue box-like object that the manual called the Kinesis unit, which is used to move objects in or out of Stasis influence. "Hopefully, this will come in handy around here." As he opened the doors, he checked for any signs of N'morphs and ran for the main control room, where he set the self-destruct and fly out like a real bat out of hell.


	3. Twinkling Little Star

Chapter 3: The Twinkling Little Star...

_"Only a few more hallways and its sky-high for this graveyard..."_ Riku thought as he inched his head over a corner to see if there were any more N'morphs in sight. Luckily, whoever had been here first clipped the majority of them so Riku's trek would be a bit easier. Upon nearing the last hallway before the main deck, he heard a sound; it was the most pleasant sound he had ever heard, like a mother's song to a crying child. He hoped that it was a survivor so that he or she could tell him how to get to the hangar faster than before so he wouldn't end up lost and set for a deep space frying. As he got closer to the sound, he began to make out the sound into words...

_"...Up above the world so high like a diamond in the sky_

_When the blazing sun is gone... When the nothing shines upon... You can shine your little light... Twinkle twinkle all the night..."_

As he stepped through the opened doors, he made his way towards the sound through thick steel walls. Like a maze, it was difficult to solve and began to try the young Keyblader's patience; that's when he noticed a small opening in the wall and figured out that these walls could be moved! "Bingo..." He muttered to himself as he activated the Kinesis Unit and moved the wall, only for it to jam. Annoyed, Riku pulled the wall far enough for him to squeeze through and bring him closer to the voice. He turned around one last corner and saw a stomach wrenching sight: Blood littered the floors as did several splintered chairs, all of which were centering a small table with a record player playing the song he heard. "So much for survivors." Riku said to himself as he turned to see the dead body of a Slasher lying on the floor. It seemed intact, but a closer look showed multiple bullet wounds around the rib cage and a few in the left side of the lower abdomen. He began to head towards the door when the song stopped all of a sudden...

" A relaxing little tune, don't you think?" Riku turned to see a figure in thin black armor with a sinister looking black and red helmet and a crimson heart on the chest. The heart had thorned vines stitching it together from being broken in two and at the end of the "thread" was a needle in the shape of the Dark Keyblade he once used when he was under Xehanort's Heartless' control. " Who are you?" Riku asked, sensing the dark force that seethed through the stranger's body.

"Well that's hurtful, you don't remember me? You are so cruel, Riku..."

"You can't expect me to recognize a face hidden behind a Halloween mask."

The man laughed at this, "Still have your wit after all that you've seen here, eh? The Darkness must have made this seem like nothing... after all, it is quite a scary place, y'know..."

"Your point?" Riku was getting tired of this guy, "Either take off the mask or take a hike, I'm a little busy not playing games right now."

"Okay, then how about a game of tag, all we need is someone to be the demon..." *

He snapped his fingers and a trail of darkness snaked along the ground, passed Riku, and eveloped the dead Slasher. Slowly, the black-covered mass began to rise up as the stranger smirked behind his helmet. "You better get a head start while you can, that's how they make the game more fun!" Riku broke into sprint toward the exit as the man disappeared ,laughing, through a portal of darkness and the mass began to move a little more from where it was resting. "Almost there..." Riku leaped through the open doors and into the control room. After double-checking the ship's map, he booted up the system and activated the self-destruct sequence.

" SELF-DESTRUCT PROTOCOL ENGAGED, ESTIMATED TIME TO DETONATION: THIRTY MINUTES" A mechanical voice said as Riku sped towards the door, only for it to be knocked over by a hulking, monstous figure. Its body was packed with bulging muscles and and spikes out of what used to be bullet holes, its jaw was long and filled with razor sharp teeth and a large spike coming out of both arms. Riku backed a step, just before the creature leaped at him to cut him in two. Reacting quickly, Riku slid through the space the leap made as he continued toward the hangar. "Ten minutes left..." He muttered as he entered the bay and entered the ship. He sped out of the hangar and into deep space. Panting heavily, Riku leaned back and tried to relax for a few moments before moving on. Then something far in the distance caught his eye; it was somewhat sharp and black, kind of like...

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!" The Black Mass was rocketing towards the ship as Riku tried to avoid its charge, but it all seemed a sluggish effort compared to how fast the beast was going. It was only a matter of seconds before the creature slammed into the window and drove its claw through to grab Riku. After its first attempt, the controls were raked and the rest of the ship gave a rocking response. That's when it hit Riku: the ship was going down and it was going to go down hard. He had barely gotten used to the thing and he felt attached to it like it was a younger brother.

_Fine, since going down with the ship is not an option, I'll work off the anger..._

Riku slammed Way to the Dawn into the protruding head of Black Mass and shoved his fist into its head as he said, ".!!!" and shot a huge Dark Firaga down its throat. In its fury, it stabbed the large claw into Riku and dragged him into space. The sudden cold smothered him as he drifted in space.

_This can't be it... I still have to find Xion... I can't just..._

Riku's vision began to fade fast, the last thing he saw was a black blur pulling him into a ship with a small two-tailed fox piloting it. A red echidna wrapped a blanket around him while a magenta echidna in a black bodysuit placed a breather in his mouth, all this while he was unconcious and unable make out what a black and gold robot was saying to a larger red and black robot with a horse shoe shaped Greek letter on both shoulders and over-sized claws on both hands. The broken spike was in deep, they had to remove it and stitch the wound up before he lost too much blood.

"Omega, if we remove the spike now, he'll leak like a broken faucet." The black and gold robot emphasized to the bulky one, gesturing the large piece of cartilage poking out of Riku's chest.

" TO THE ZERO TEMPERATURE OF DEEP SPACE, THE BOY'S BLOOD SHOULD BE FROZEN TO WHERE REMOVAL WILL BE NO CONCERNS ME IS THE POSSIBLITY OF ANY RUPTURED VITALS FROM THE CREATURE'S ASSAULT... I BELIEVE THAT IS WHAT YOUR SUPPOSED TO BE CONCERNED WITH, GEMERL" The mechanical voice echoed from Omega, the large robot, and to the smaller robot, Gemerl.

"Guys, we don't have time to argue! We need to get this guy some relief and fast before he's six feet out of reach from any help we can give him." Said a blue hedgehog who was taking the controls from the small fox and letting him and a cream-colored rabbit take a look at , he can trust these guys to fix him up... despite the fact that he didn't have a choice in the matter. All he can do is sleep and rest up for whatever the future can throw at him.

_I'll be ready... the minute I get up is the minute I get out. I'll walk off the stitches and and find... something that can get me off of whatever rock I'm going to land on._

Riku thought this as he drifted closer to sleep and into the cold black that always awaited him whenever he fell asleep. He could only hope that the dreams would be of his home, his friends, and hopefully nothing about Heartless, or Darkness or Nobodies... well, maybe one Nobody would be alright...

_What was that just now? Tsk, forget it..._

***= fact in Japan, the game of tag is played with the person being it also being referred to as the "demon" while the chased are the "human(s)"**

**Riku has encountered an unexpected group of beings that seem to want to help... but can they be trusted? Find out Next Chapter!**


	4. The Unexpected Friends

Chapter 4: The Unexpected Friends

_Riku leaped at the Black Mass and smacked it in the head with his Keyblade and, just before blasting it with Dark Firaga, yelled,".!!!" Everything else went out of focus, all he remembered was the pain in his chest and the incomparable cold that quickly followed._

"Wow, Riku, how'd you get out of that!?" Sora exclaimed, sitting next to his best friend while Kairi toasted marshmallows.

"Heh, I don't remember... all I do remember is all the excitement and... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!" Riku cried out in pain as two Keyblades shoved into his body, coughing blood as he moved his head to his friends."Guys, why did you..." He thought he would see the faces of his friends, but instead he saw two Necromorphs raise their spikes to take off his head...

Riku gasped as he awoke with a horrified start, panting as he searched himself and then his surroundings. He was in a small room with an open window that displayed a clear blue sky. Attached to his bedpost was a balloon with childish marker art of him with a thermometer in his mouth and an ice bag on his head. After some effort, he managed to make out the message, "Get Well Sewn, Mr. Spaceman!" Riku had to laugh, the messenger had misspelled "soon," everything else was kind of... cute, as Kairi or Selphie would say? He shrugged and attempted to get on his feet. Much to his surprise, he did it with out staggering in any manner whatsoever, so he thought he could test himself out in the only he knew how; by stepping out the door and walking... in sweatpants... no shirt... and barefooted... right... Riku mentally kicked himself; he doesnt have his clothes! He checked the drawers in his room until he finally found all of his stuff: his zip-up sleevless shirt, white and yellow vest, jeans, socks, shoes, black gloves, the Kinesis and Stasis units, and his RIG. After he donned everything, he stuck his head out to see if there was anyone around.

_Good, I'm outta here..._

As Riku began to sprint through of the house, he heard footsteps coming around the corner; he didn't know whether or not they were friends, foes, or more N'morphs, so he was going to take his chances with N'morphs. He used a technique he had practiced on the islands he liked to call Dark Phase; this allowed him to merely ghost right through walls. He sunk right into a slightly larger room with several bookshelves, a couch, one or two windows that failed to light up much of the shady room, and a sword hanging over a mantle. Riku inspected the sword and was amazed by the glow its dark grey blade seemed to radiate. It had a gold hilt with an ivory colored grip, the blade itself was curved and had a place where a network of gold connected to make a net-like pattern that decorated the back of the blade's broadsides. The craftmanship and care it must've took to make the sword alone enticed him to test it's weight...

"Don't touch that." A voice commanded as Riku spun on his heel to see a black hedgehog step forward. "I see that you have an eye for a fine blade, but I think that you should keep your distance. Arondight doesn't take kindly to strangers..." He leaped away from a slash by Riku, Way to the Dawn clenched tightly in his hand. The hedgehog smirked, "Looks like you have an edge of your own. Rouge asked me to see how you were feeling, I only hoped that it would be as good as this." Then he took out Arondight and held the blade upside down, "Don't disappoint me..."

"If you were one of them, then you're the most intelligent I've met so far." Riku scoffed as he prepared his stance.

"Them?" The hedgehog shook the question off and leaped forward for a vertical spin slash, which was blocked and parried by Riku and followed up by a kick that sent the hedgehog flying a ways backward. "So, you fight like that, huh? Now, I'm interested!" He lunged forward and Riku leaped over the blow and aimed for his blindspot, only for it to be blocked by a large metallic arm. The arm, as Riku slowly saw as he looked along the dense limb, was attached to a very large robot who apparently was going to let him get away with attacking its friend.

"SHADOW, WE HAVE JUST RECIEVED A MESSAGE FROM TAILS: WE ARE TO RENDEVOUS AT HIS WORKSHOP IN EIGHTY-FIVE MINUTES." Shadow, the black hedgehog, made small red rip in the air, pushed Arondight into it, and then made it disappear.

"Are we supposed to bring our guest along?" Shadow gestured toward Riku, recieving a nod from the large robot.

"AFFIRMATIVE, HE SEEMS MORE THAN CAPABLE OF WALKING ON HIS OWN. DOES THIS FLAMMABLE LIFE-FORM HAVE A NAME?"

"My name is Riku, and what are you supposed to be?"

"I AM E-123, OMEGA. THAT IS SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG, ALSO KNOWN AS THE ULTIMATE LIFE-FORM AND THE BLACK BLUR, GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT?"

Riku was about to say something when he was interrupted by a child's voice, "Is feeling any better?" which made him turn around to see a little rabbit in a red dress and a small little blue creature with a red bow tie. Riku immediately remembered that handle from the balloon in his room, he smirked at the little one.

"Yes, he's feeling much better, thanks for the balloon."

The rabbit bowed with a smile, "Thank you, my name is Cream and this is Cheese." She gestured to the blue creature that piped a little "chaoo." Riku bowed back slightly and replied "Hello to you, too. You can call me -..." Riku was interrupted by another voice, this time more adult and feminine than Cream. "We're all going to be late by the time you're finished." A female bat said as she stood in the doorway." I think it's time to move on, Cream, your mom's waiting for you outside."

Cream smiled and replied," Okay,Rouge, thank you for letting me stay with to help with... um..." Awkwardly, she paused, she never caught Mr. Spaceman's name. Then she heard him say his name.

"Riku."

She smiled brightly and bowed once again, "Thank you, I hope to see you again, Mr. Riku." With that, she skipped away from sight. Rouge laughed, "She's such a sweetheart, she never gave up on trying to make you feel better. She would've stayed up all night if I hadn't convinced her otherwise." They discussed how they found Riku in space as they left for Tails' workshop; they saw the Ishimura explode while they were looking for powerful items called Chaos Emeralds. They saw the Black Mass competely disintergrate as Shadow brought him aboard the Cyclone, Tails' spaceship. By the time she had finished her story, Omega was tapping loudly on Tails' door, which had luckily been answered before there was a dent in the metal.

"Thanks for coming on such short notice, everyone, and sorry if I had interrupted anything..." The two-tailed fox said as he tinkered with a small machine. That was when a blue hedgehog interjected with his own comment.

"You shouldn't apologize, Tails. If they were doing anything, then they wouldn't have come here." He smirked as he scratched his ear, earning an unsure grimace from Tails. "Yeah, but..." Then he noticed Riku standing in the doorway. "Hey, you've gotten better! That's a relief; after the first week, we thought you weren't ever going to wake up. I'm still curious about how that nasty wound managed to heal so quickly..."

That's when a rabbit, much older than Cream, knelt down next to the little rabbit," Maybe because my little Cream had done such a good job." and made her daughter laugh. Then a different voice broke up the fuzzy moment with, "Cute as this all is, we need to focus on the matter at hand: Finding the Chaos Emeralds." The voice came from a black and gold armored robot that was much shorter than Omega's towering height. "You may be right, Gemerl, but I don't want to drag our guest into something he doesn't want to do. It's your choice, sir, if you don't wanna, then that's ok. We've done this before, so you don't have to worry."

Riku lolled this over for a moment; he wasn't if he had much time left, espicially with the fact that he had been unconcious for a whole week now, nor was he very clear on if there was any time limit whatsoever. What also bothered him was the Dark Stranger, the man who almost got him killed aboard the Ishimura. If, or more than likely since, he is still alive, he might very well try to attack Riku again. This chilled Riku to the bone if he had ended up getting Cream and her friends caught in the crossfire because of that. That's when he heard Shadow say, "If you think that whatever brought that thing on you in space has a chance against us, then you'd better flip that idea over fast. We've dealt with tough enemies before, so don't ditch us for our own safety."

This snapped Riku out of his train of thought and had him ready with a response for his unexpected friends.

"Just call me Riku and you'ce got a deal."


	5. Dreaming of Awakening

Chapter 5: Dreaming of Awakening

_Thump-thump... Thump-thump... Thump-thump..._

The sound echoed in her ears for a believed eternity as she remained motionless in a place unknown and empty as the rest of her was. She could hear... she could see... smell?

_Never tried it... Speak? To what? The nearest unoccupied air bubble that floats up from the bottom of the stasis tank and into vision? Not so much... Touch... Oh wait, can't move anything... Right..._

"Nice to see that you're awake. Did you sleep well?" Said the armored man on the other side of the glass. She tried to move her lips, but all that came out was a rush of bubbles, much to the arnored man's amusement. " Never on the third day, girl. Just focus on healing, okay?" He then walked out of sight and into his quarters. She never knew what to make of him, was he helping her or was he... That's when her head started to throb pain; she can't remember anything amd her dreams did nothing but confuse her even further.

_Who am I? Why am I here? Who is that walking trash can and who is this boy I keep seeing in my dreams?_

That boy... is he in the armor? No, that wouldn't make much sense, why hide from her when they might know each other? That boy with silver hair and eyes that were... blank? Flashes of images in hundreds of numbers obscured her vision as the pain increased.

_UIKRIRIRKRRIUIKRUIKRIRIUIRIKRRIIRKRUKIKURURIRIKRKRIRRKRKRRRKRIRRIUIIKRKRIRIKIKUKRIIRKURIRKI..... His name... what is his name? WHO ARE YOU!?_

Her dream brought her onto bright white floor surrounded by darkness as the question burned inside her mind. In front of her was the boy, standing with his back to her. "Please... Tell me... who are you?" The she heard a chuckle that was followed by a response. "How can I tell you who I am if you don't even know who you are?"

"What're you talking about? I'm-..." Another flash of pain hit her as she gripped her head. The boy seemed oblivious as he continued.

"Man, I feel sorry for you... Guess I can give you a little hint."

Regaining her composure, she scoffed slightly, "So why the change of heart?"

"I dunno, maybe..." He paused to turn around to look at her, he knelt down to her eye level after the pain from earlier had brought her to her knees. " Maybe because I felt like it, Xion."

"RIKU!!!"

Riku shot out of bed, gripping his sheets tightly as he heard his name being called in the middle of his sleep. He went into the bathroom to get some water for his dry throat, trying to think of how he heard his name yelled out by some voice in his dreams.

**"Hehe, maybe you're crazy..."**

Riku jumped at the voice behind him and turned to see nobody behind him. Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he turned to the bathroom mirror and opened the compartment to see if there was pain reliever for his headache he had just became aware of. Upon closing the door, Riku's heart leapt at the sight of a black figure with dark yellow eyes, scarf-like extensions coming out of his neck, an all shadow-black body, small cloths hanging around his wrists, somewhat baggy dark grey pants ripped in several places on the bottoms of the legs and knees,a shoulder plate on his left shoulder, and ash grey hair. He whipped out Way to the Dawn and swung an arc at the being only for it to be avoided and his throat and arms gripped by dark tendrils. "What... the heck kind of Heartless are you?" He breathed as the tendrils' grip loosened slightly.

**"Heartless?"** The entity snickered, then broke out into a fit of laughter as he dropped Riku onto the floor. Making a gesture of wiping a tear away from his eye, the being said,** "I'm no pitiful little Shadow or any of those other types... though being a Dustflier would be kinda cool... ANYWHO! I'm a Guardian... Your Guardian actually..."**

Dumbfounded, Riku sat on the floor with his jaw hanging as the intoduction finished, **"You're my Human, my partner, and I'm not just a Guardian, I'm THE Gaurdian! The baddest of the bad, cream of the crop, the number one knucklehead of the Hidden Leaf... Oh, wait, wrong series*... ANYHOW!! I'm, like I said before, you're Guardian and don't think you can call that whenever you need my help, okay?"**

"Hold it. What makes you think I should use you? If you're a Guardian, then your just like that thing from..."

**"Yes, I know. But just bare with me, alright? I really wanna help, so just make use of me, man.. Ever since The World That Never Was, I've been twiddling my thumbs waiting for you to call my name so I could come help. Do you have any idea how boring that is!? Well, let me tell you, not fun at a-..."**

"All right, all right, what IS your name?"

**"Huh? OH! My name... You can call me ----"** Then he stopped.

" What's wrong? I saw your lips move, but nothing came out... That's weird..." Riku saw the figure slap himself in the forehead and say, "Oh right, I forgot; I can't say my name. Here." He gestured to the mirror, which fogged up as an invisible finger drew five letters on the glass:

_R-E-V-R-S_

"How do you pronounce that? Like reverse, the opposite of forward or what?"

**"You got it."**

"Riku, who're you talking to?" Riku turned to see Sonic standing behind with an eyebrow cocked and a look saying, _"should I be worried about you?"_ Riku looked behind him to see that Revrs had disappeared. Awkwardly, Riku simply said, "Uuuh, would believe... my shadow?"

**It looks like Riku has found himself a new partner, but will he be trouble for our hero? It also appears that Xion may very well be alive, but what is she doing in the clutches of the Dark Stranger? Find out next time on Dragon Ball... DAMMIT, I GOT MESSED UP!**

***= Character awareness, you gotta love it! **

**Kudos to Mr Fipp and Soul Eater Dark for their awesome Kingdom Hearts fics that got my rusty writer gears turning again. YOU DUDES ROOOOOOOOCK!!!!**


	6. Getting to know you without musicals!

Chapter 6: Getting to Know You, Without the Musicals!

Tails had been at the helm of his new ship, the Typhoon, for hours while everyone else was either resting, eating, or training somewhere on the ship. Sonic had been pacing back and forth on the main deck for just as long due to how much he hated not being able to run for long distances, which was almost as bad as he hated water that wasn't in a glass. Meanwhile, Gemerl had taken an interest in Riku; mostly because Cream seemed to trust him well enough to hang around and leastly because he wanted to fight the Keyblade Master just to see how strong he really was. He searched every square inch of the ship until he finally found him in the cafeteria talking into a small rectangular device.

"... and how's Kairi? You should be bragging about your first date by now... She what!?" He chuckled and picked up where he left off. "Caught you off guard, huh? That's kinda sad, y'know? You, Mr. Beat-A-Thousand-Heartless, would be caught off guard by a girl's lips." Riku laughed a little more. "Well, make sure my place is just the way I left it, ok? I'll try and call you guys when I get the chance, bye." With that, he beeped his device and it disconnected the signal. He turned to see Gemerl staring at him with his head tilted to the side.

"What is that thing?" He asked, pointing to Riku's litte object in his hand.

"This? It's a DSP, basically a phone."

"What does DSP stand for?"

"Dual System Portable." He let Gemerl have a better look at it by placing his thumb on the edge and slightly pushing it. The phone flipped itself into a two-screened device with a small compartment for a stylus, then Riku reflipped it and extended it into a slightly longer device with a broad screen, an analog pad on the left side of the screen, four buttons on the right side of the screen, and a port for headsets with or without a microphone."It does music, games, internet, pretty much everything you can think of. Cost a LOT of munny, but this bad boy made the burnt hole in my pocket all the more worthwhile."

"Do you use all of that stuff?"

"Not all in one day, just when I need to."

Gemerl was impressed by the little peice of equipment, but not as much of he was of Riku. He seemed to only know how to fight, but he knew plenty about tech as well.

_I guess a warrior can't just be all about strength. Riku must be a real handful for anyone who tries to cross him..._

"You feeling okay Gemerl?" The robot snapped out of it as Riku's question snapped him into attention.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm good, but I was wondering..." Gemerl hesitated, not sure if he really had the courage to fight Riku, let alone challenge him.

"I'll be in the sparring room." Riku said as he smiled and laid a hand on Gemerl's shoulder while was passing him.

Cream saw Gemerl checking himself for any errors in his systems, any calibrations that needed adjusting, sensors that were on the fritz; basically anything that could toss his situation into one that would favor Riku. She frowned a little, seeing as how that he was going to fight again. Gemerl turned to see the little rabbit with such a sad look on her face that he stopped what he was doing and asked, "Are you ok, Cream? Why do you look so sad?" Cream shook her head and smiled, "Are you sparring with Riku?" Gemerl nodded excitedly, like he was looking forward to it, despite how nervous he felt.

"Yep, I can't wait either! I bet I can land four hits before he can even move his weapon an inch!"

"Are you sure you seem a little... nervous."

"Nervous? Don't be silly, I'm not nervous at all..." _Rattle-Rattle-Rattle-Rattle..._

Cream giggled, everything from the neck down of Gemerl's armor began rattling like crazy as he tried to convince the girl that he wasn't nervous.

"Well, maybe a little..."

Cream tilted her head and rose her eyebrow a little as if to say, "Are you sure about that?"

Gemerl eased up a little, "Okay, kinda..."

She lowered her eyebrow a little less, but kept her eyes fixed on him.

"Sorta..."

Lower...

"...-ish?"

Her head went back to normal, but no dice on the stare.

"Alright, alright, alright, yes. I am nervous, very very nervous. Happy?"

"Mmm-hm!" She said, smiling as she walked shook his head as he thought to himself.

_Sometimes, she can be as confusing as Rouge..._

Riku sat on the bench near the entrance to the arena, contemplating on what his strategy should be.

_He seems to be focused on ground based attacks, due to his heavy density, but seeing as how he carries himself, he could be well-balanced..._

_**Hey, hope you don't mind me barging in like this, buddy.**_

Riku jumped at Revrs' sudden interjection into his thoughts.

_You! You can hear my thoughts?_

_**Uuuum, shadow... duh!**_

_Oh, right, right, right. So what is it?_

_**Okay, listen up: Gemerl is what this world's government called the Gizoid; pretty much a very powerful weapon capable of immeasureable power. It was created by an ancient civilization said to have originally owned these Chaos Emeralds that Sonic and the others are looking for, plus this really big one called the Master Emerald. If I were you, I'd be sure that you were this fanfic's writer's favorite guy or you're screwed!**_

_Huh!? What are you talking about? This is no time for jokes!_

_**Is it, Riku? Is it really? Oooooooooooooooh...**_

Rolling his eyes, Riku stood up and stepped through the doors into the sparring arena, where a waiting Gemerl was waiting with his arms crossed. Grinning, Riku summoned his Keyblade and got into his stance. Gemerl stood motionless, scanning Riku's stance and calculated every possible movement he might use in that stance. Afterwards, Gemerl eject a small hilt from his wrist and ignited a curved, jade green ethereal blade of energy, then mimicked Riku's stance in an almost frighteningly perfect mirror image.

_I can already tell.. I'm gonna have my hands full with this one._

**Looks like Riku has a very strong opponent this time, can he prove to be a match for the legendary weapon of ancient time? Find out next time on Path of Shadows...**


	7. The AllOutKnockOut

Chapter 7: The All-Out-Knock-Out

Riku stepped slowly to his left, Gemerl mirrored his steps to the right; both were set on bringing the other to his knees. Riku's icy glare met with Gemerl's seemingly emotionless robotic gaze in a way that seemed to wage a battle all of its own, without a sign of victory in sight. Then Gemerl made a move; he lunged at Riku with a bullet-fast forward thrust of his energy blade, the blade humming as it ripped all the air in its path. Riku quickly stepped to the side and blocked it with Way to the Dawn and shot a Dark Firaga at the black bot's head. Just in the nick of time, Gemerl leaned his back just to see the blast shoot over his vision, out of sight, and leave Riku wide open. He brought up his blade in an upper slash that caught Riku under his left arm, leaving a painful bruise just barely behind the elbow.

_He could've broken my arm... why did he hesitate? Is he toying with me? Maybe I can use this to my advantage..._

He shook off the pain and brought his knee into Gemerl's stomach, the move stunned the robot and gave Riku enough time to wrap his hand around the his arm, swing him around, and throw him into the wall. Gemerl pulled himself out of the outline dent he made in the wall and dusted himself off, "I was hoping you'd step it up. I was beginning to worry that you were gonna put me to sleep." He then shot forward and spun himself into a devastating buzzsaw that charged at Riku. The silver-haired warrior threw his Keyblade up into a defensive stance combined with a Dark Shield. Upon impact, the shield shattered and both were pushed a little of a ways back, but Gemerl recovered quicker and swung twice, the first was blocked by Riku's leg while the other hit Riku square in the chest.

_This... is... impossible!!! It's like I'm fighting my mirror image; he knows every move I had ever made up on the islands... wait a minute!!_

Riku knew his own fighting style, Gemerl was using it like he learned right beside him. More than likely, there just had to be the same flaws. Only question was: How to exploit them without getting pummeled in the process? That's when it hit him.

_**"Revrs!"**_ Riku called in his mind, hoping that the being would answer him.

**"Ready when you are!"** He shouted back to the Keyblade Master. Riku felt a cold rush wash over him, his arms stretched back like he was going to free fall from a plane, then he went limp from the waste up. This sudden motion puzzled everyone who had stopped by to watch.

"Omega, what just happened?" Sonic asked, concern written all over his face.

"NO IDEA, BUT JUDGING BY HIS VITALS, HE HAS BEEN SELF-RENDERED UNCONCIOUS." Omega responded, the last part scaring Cream a little.

"Is he going to be okay?" She piped, her voice begging for a hopeful answer.

"AFFIRMATIVE, IT APPEARS TO BE TOTALLY TEMPO-..." Omega stopped, his energy sensors going off, "MASSIVE ENERGY SOURCE DETECTED! ORIGINS UNKNOWN, POWER LEVEL EQUIVALENT UNKNOWN, ESTIMATED DISTANCE: RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!!!"

Sure enough, a black nest of shadows began coursing around Riku, causing the room to shudder and quake. Shadow was awestruck at this power, he turned to Omega, "Omega, what does your sensors say right now!?"

"..."

"Omega!!!"

"IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!!!!!!!!!" Omega head shorted and a small implosion caused a ploom of smoke to rise out of his head.

Mortified, Shadow yelled,"WHAT!? NINE THOUSAND!? THERE'S NO WAY THAT CAN BE RIGHT, CAN IT!?"

"Right or wrong, look!" Rouge pointed to where Riku was standing, along with something else...

A black shadow was standing beside him, a long nodachi longsword in its left hand while his right arm was using Riku's shoulder as a perch.

**"Yo."** Revrs said with a smile. He sprinted forward towards Gemerl while Riku fired Dark Firaga after Dark Firaga at the black Gizoid. Brutally, Revrs laid the beating on Gemerl; heavy elbow thrust to the head, dead knee, slam kick into the stomach, scoop up with sword, use for human...er... robot shield from Riku's barrage of blasts, then a German Suplex... over and over again... I lost count after 15...

**(Author's Note- Yeah, I lost track and I'm the writer of this story!! Revrs is all kinds of badass, but for how long I wonder... ;D hehehehe)**

Dented, battered, bruised, and many other kinds of hurt, Gemerl felt like he had rusted, got recycled, and rusted all over again, "Oooh-hooooh, my aching bolts..." Gemerl cracked his neck, "I gotta say, you are really full of surprises. So if that's the case..." The bot thrusted his hand out and it changed into a small gatling cannon, "SAY HELLO TO MY BOUNCY LITTLE FRIENDS!!!"

_WHIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-DAT-DAT-DAT-DAT-DAT-DAT..._

In rapid succesion, small, black rubber balls shot out and pummeled Riku and Revrs. During the flurry,Gemerl called out, "Omega, now!!" and began to glow. Omega jumped into the arena and seperated all his parts from himself. Gemerl's three pronged horn sank into his head as Omega's head connected to become a helmet,which began to protrude horns of its own while Gemerl's arms and legs docked into the bigger robots own limbs. Afterwards, Omega's chest split in two to act as extra shoulder armor for Gemerl's new body.

"Sequence complete! Omegerl, ONLINE!!" Gemerl announced, flexing his new mechanical muscles. **"Oh boy..."** Revrs said, not liking the looks of what was in front of him. Riku sprinted forward with Way to the Dawn and had his left hand fishing in one of his pockets. Grabbing what he was looking for, he pulled out two small items; one was a small black crown keychain and the other was a charm in the shape of a blue serpent wrapped around a katana. Riku threw the charm at Revrs as he yelled, "Absorb this! I think you can be used as a summoning medium!" Nodding, Revrs caught it and shot back, "Okay, just keep Omegerl off me for a bit! I'm running low on energy and I need to concntrate for one last ditch!" Riku nodded back and concentrated on the black crown keychain. Darkness surrounded it and it shot up into another Keyblade, one that he was all too familiar with. "Sync Blade*: Oblivion!"

Omegerl locked on to the approaching Keyblade wielder and loaded more rubber BB's into the guns in his arms; he was tough with just one Keyblade, two was worse for sure. As the gunfire began, Riku deflected as many as he could so Revrs can charge for the summon. Riku felt and heard the guns stop after running out of ammo, so he jumped and cross-slashed Omegerl's armor, then followed up with a flurry of other slashes. After being knocked to the ground, Omegerl expected this to be the end until...

_Random Alarm Sound, Random Alarm Sound, Random Alarm Sound!!!_

**"That's the weirdest alarm I've ever heard."** Revrs said as he vanished and Omegrl seperated back into the previous two individuals. Two echidnas appeared in the doorway and yelled at everyone, "Guys! We have to get back to Mobius quickly, Eggman's on the rampage with some guy in black armor!!!" The red one said while the magenta one helped Omega get Gemerl back on his feet. The last part is what got Riku's attention, "Black armor, huh?"

*sync blade- a technique which allows one to wield two keyblades at once. Examples are established as Roxas and Valor, Master, and Final Form Sora.

**After an awe striking display of strength and skill, disaster strikes and calls our heroes into action. But is the Dark Stranger doing with Eggman? Find out on the next chapter of Path of Shadows.**


	8. Race to the Spire!

Chapter 8: Race to the Spire!!

Sonic, Shadow, Gemerl, and Riku sped off on foot towards the towering spire with Eggman and The Dark Stranger atop its roof. As they dashed forward, something was bothering the heroic blue hedgehog, "HOW ARE YOU KEEPING UP WITH US!? We're going 300 miles an hour!!" Riku blinked, then sweatdropped as he thought back to when they landed back on Mobius...

_"There's where Eggman has placed his Eggspire, looks like he wasn't bluffing about taking over the world with this sucker." Gemerl said as his left ocular scanner zoomed in and out on the large structure that was covered in anti-vehicular weaponry from top to bottom. Sonic was stretching himself out like he was an Olympic athlete* and Shadow looked on scornfully at what layed at the peak of the Eggspire: seven luminous, individual colored emeralds that had no business being in Eggman's wretched clutches. Rouge placed a gloved hand on his shoulder and looked at him with concern, but the Black Blur shook his head, "I'm fine," he said with his way-of-a-smile, then stood next Sonic and Gemerl, "Are you prepared?" Gemerl nodded and looked at Riku as they both got into a runner's stance, "Good luck keeping up!" Sonic smirked and said " Okay... Here we.. GO!!!!"_

_Riku broke into a sprint but was swallowed by a cloud of dust as the three Mobians took off into a blast-off of a run. Revrs appeared behind Riku and laughed loudly, __**" Oh-hohohohohohohooo, man, you got dead last down pat... that is if I don't help." **__Riku grimaced, "Oh go choke on..." before he finished, Revrs began to cough and hack as a puff of dirt cloud flew into his throat. "Nevermind, you got that covered." Between coughs, Revrs sputtered, __**"Just *hack* keep *wretch* running! *series of coughing and hacking*" **__Riku nodded and kept his pace until he felt Revrs hands on his back, __**"HYPER SPEEEEEEEEEEED!!!!" **__With a heave, the shadow pressed the both of them into a run that almost instantaneously caught them up with the rest of the group..._

"I had a friendly 'push,' let's just leave it at that..." Riku said as they were more than half way near their destination. Sonic looked up to see all of the spire's weaponry aimed right at them, barrels clicked, missles whined, lasers hummed, buzzaws... buzzed, and Peanut Butter Jelly yelled "I LIKE CEREAL!!!!" on a metal platform... wait what!?

**(Picture stops, blurs, sound lowers, and film tears)**

**Cayne: Who put that there!?**

**???: OH OH OH OH PICK ME PICK ME!!**

**Cayne: Oh dear God... yes of course... Ned...**

**Ned: Say it riiiiiiiight! X3**

**Cayne: (rolls eyes) -sigh- fine... Ned of the Neds of Ned-topia of Nediverse of Tennesee... happy?**

**Ned: YAYZ!!! Can Iz haz my woot beew nowz? PWEEEEEEEEZ!!**

**Cayne: Well...**

**Ned: PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE???**

**Cayne: After this chapter, I'll let the reviewers decide**

**Ned: (wearing an Uncle Sam costume but the beard is covering half his body and the sleeves are a foot over his hands that have flags in each finger, a stars-stripes party blower in his mouth, and sparklers in his hat that amazingly stays in place) VOTE FOR NED, A VOTE FOR NED IS A VOTE FOR RANDOMNESS!!!!"**

**Cayne: (sweatdrops) Before you vote, you must know he has the sugar tolerance of a three year old, one drop made him tear the skull out of one of our unpaid interns and beat him to death with it****

**Ned: Oh noes for Kenny...**

**Kenny: YOU BASTARD!!!**

**Cayne: OKAY, We're wasting time here! People want to hear the story!**

**(silence....)**

**Cayne: Aaaaaah, silence...sex to the mind, never get enough of it... (awkward silence...) uuuuuh... back the story (rolls the clip)**

Riku shook his head, "Okay, that was weird." Sonic pushes to the side as they continue running and one of the cannons fires a round at them, blowing a hole in the ground next to Riku. "Don;t space out like that, you'll be Swiss cheese if you're not careful." Sonic said as they picked up speed from going downhill. Shadow grinned darkly, "Gemerl, do you have that 'special' gun of mine?" Gemerl opened his chest and pulled a strange-looking bazooka, "Right here!" Then Riku had to ask, "What on earth is that?" Then a small, blue head with mechanical yellow eyes popped of the barrel's inside. "Hey, did you know that this is called the Omochao Gun?" An eyebrow rose as the mechanical contraption continued. "This gun is an impressive piece of engineering that Shadow and Tails have worked on recently; this weapon has ,in theory, the firepower to shoot me at hundreds of miles an hour to my fiery death... wait...." *BOOM* "!!!!!!"

The mechanical nuisance was fired at the spire, where he exploded and destroyed enough weapons to make an incline so that the quadrio could easily run and jump up to the top. Upon their arrival, there stood Dr. Eggman and the Dark Stranger as if in waiting for them. "I must say, Sonic, you have a keen nack for mucking in my mud for all the years we've known each other. But now it all comes to an end, right here and n-..." Sonic interrupted with a rude" Blah, blah, blah, 'and once I am gone, you will take over the world and create the ultimate Eggman Empire.' We've heard the speech more than enough times than I personally like to brag about. Just let me smash your stupid Egg-Stick and call it a day." Gemerl snickered and Shadow scoffed quietly to himself at the doctor's red face and following tantrum. "QUIET QUIET QUIET, YOU WRETCHED MAMMAL!!! I HAVE NOT ONLY BROUGHT TO WORKING ORDER THIS INGENIOUS EGG-'SPIRE,' " He cleared his throat, " Not only that, but I have also brought a few dear aquaintances of yours..." He snapped his fingers and three capsules rose up from the floor beside him. In the first was Vanilla, Cream's mother, in the second was a blonde human girl in a light blue sweater and and jeans whom Shadow became enraged in seeing captured, and a Mobian squirrel-chipmunk female in a blue vest and boots in the third container that threw Sonic into an anxious rage. "NO!! What have you done to Miss Vanilla!?" Gemerl yelled angrily as he aimed an energy cannon at Eggman.

"IF YOU HARMED A HAIR ON HOPE'S HEAD, I'LL MAKE SURE THAT NOTHING WILL KEEP YOU SAFE FROM ME!!!!" Shadow bellowed as his eyes filled with hatred and waves of Chaos energy remenated from his core.

Riku could have sworn that Sonic had no pupils and a dark body for a split second as he flared at Eggman, "Let Sally and the others GO!!!!"

Eggman simply laughed, "Oh, that's not all, my dear Blue Pest..." Then Sonic felt a powerful fist slam into his jaw as a green hedgehog in a black leather jacket with flames on his sleeves and red-rimmed sunglasses appeared and put a black and green boot on Sonic's bruised jaw. "Hey, hey, hey, why the rush? We were just getting the party started!" Shadow made a bee-line for the mysterious hedgehog and threw a Chaos Spear at him, only for him to warp away and make the attack barely miss Sonic. "SCOURGE!?" Sonic rubbed his face in awe at seeing his evil alter-ego out of dimensional jail and breathing the same air he was. "Bingo!!! Hail to the King, Baby***, he remembers my name! You'd think that after being gone for so long, you'd forget everything about me, but this is so flattering that I just might turn red..." He paused to check himself, "Nope, green and loving it!" and laughed. Shadow was unamused, "How did you use Chaos Control without an emerald!?" Eggman interjected once more, "That is once more another of my ingenious ideas made alive," He pulls out a vial of black-red liquid that made Shadow pale, "It can't be..." Scourge grinned evily, "Oh but it can, and it is; its the same stuff that gave you those cruddy parlor tricks of yours, Black Doom's blood" Oh, and that's not all I can do..." He warped to the containers and tendrils of dark energy wrapped around them. "NOOOO!!!!" The four yelled in unison as shocks of black electricity surrounded the encompassed metal coccoons. The tendrils returned to Scourge and the inhabitants of the capsules had turned to discolored versions of themselves, as if someone had splashed color removal on them. None of the Mobians could have believed at what had just happened, Gemerl and Shadow rushed to their individual aquaintances' capsules and attempted to free them while Sonic tried hard to get up. Shadow beat on the glass as hard as he could, but to no avail."Release them... NOOOOOOOW!!!" Shadow's voice shook with fury beyond mortal comprehension. "There is no reason to be so hasty, they won't survive long if they aren't in those canisters..." The Dark Stranger said with a smile in his voice.

Finally, Sonic staggered up and made his way to Sally as Riku glared at the Dark Stranger and summoned both Way to the Dawn and Oblivion in his hands. "What do you hope to get out of this? TELL ME!! Why do they have to get hurt!?" He gestured to the three captives, only to recieve a chuckle from the man. "Then I wouldn't have earned my half of the bargain." Gemerl shook his head at this, "Bargain?..." He leered at the Dark Stranger, " What kind of bargain... WHAT KIND OF BARGAIN HURTS THE INNOCENT!?" Scourge guffawed at Gemerl's pitiful reaction. "It's the kind that gives you real power!! Get that through that cheap tin skull of yours!" Eggman nodded with an evil chuckle, "Yes, now for the final stage of my plan: You see, with the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds and this last sample of Black Doom's blood, I can finally bring about my ultimate goal! By researching my grandfather Professor Gerald's log, I will bring history to the present by creating a new and more powerful Ultimate Lifeform, more powerful than Shadow AND Super Shadow combined! Behold!" He rose his arms in dramatic fashion as a larger, fourth canister rose behind him, containing an unconcious, platinum-silver multispined, hedgehog. "That looks like..." Sonic said, followed by Shadow, "Silver?" Scourge shook a finger at him, "Ah-ah-aaaah, wrong, Black Blunder, this is my new baby brother; to hate and smother and pummel until he can hold his own so I can kill him later, meet... uuuuuh..." He pauses, snapping his fingers, trying to remember what the Doc' called him. *cough-cough-"Nazo!"-cough-ahem* Dark Stranger said. "YEAH thats it, Nazo." Scourge said before feeling a hand go through his chest. "GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!" The pain was unbearable, he felt his life leaving him as a dark black heart hovered out of his body and into a smiling Nazo's face. "Sorry, big brother, but no punch backs in Hell." He said in a cold voice that reeked of evil intent. "Such a black heart, you are quite the evil little mimic, aren't you?" His words hurt almost as bad as the wound, "I'm.. I'm not a mimic... I'm me... I'm Scourge... the... Hedge...haah-..." He muttered as he lost sight and everything else connected. "Now then, let us see who is the more powerful, you all... or I..." Nazo said as Scourge's Black Heart sank into his chest.

_**"Riku... I need that heart..."**_ Revrs echoed within the center of Riku's mind. _-Huh? Why do you need it?_

_**"... I'll explain later. Right now, be the hero and save the three damsels in distress, then reap your reward. Got me?"**_

Agreeing on saving the three captives, Riku readied his Keyblades, Shadow readied Arondite, Gemerl armed his wrist missiles, and Sonic readied was about ready when a sword fell into the ground before him. He looked up to see another silver hedgehog, this one Sonic and Shadow knew well, whom was accompanied by a light purple furred cat. "Blaze and I will get them out of here, we'll come back when we can!" Silver focused his mind and the three canisters lifted up as they all teleported away with Silver and Blaze. "Hmph, I do not intend on letting this fight last that long!" A voice remenated from the sword. "Caliburn?" The sword's handguard opened to reveal a face that smiled at the blue hedgehog, "Of course, what other talking swords do you know." Sonic retorted, "You're bad enough!" Shadow stepped forward and pointed Arondite at Nazo, "We can have a teary reunion later, right now we have an obstacle ahead of us." Sonic nodded, his hope reborn from all the pain that had shattered it. Riku nodded at Sonic, as did Gemerl and Shadow, and with a confident step, he swung Caliburn and said," Okay, let's do this!!"

**AT LAST!! My writer's block has been passed and viola! Lo and behold the results!! Please enjoy and review... QUICKLY, I CAN'T HOLD NED OFF FOR LONG!!! O___O**

***- LOL Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games reference, I love this gig!!**

****- Red VS Blue Reference, I'm on FIRE today! (Smells smoke) DAMMIT NED!!! I TOLD YOU TO STOP LIGHTING MY PANTS ON FIRE!!!  
**

*****- Scourge uses this line in the comics he appears in, which is derived to the actual ending to Army of Darkness, Starring Bruce Campbell as Ash in the third movie in the Evil Dead movie trilogy and prologue to the following games.**

**Whew, the things I do to entertain my readers... OFF MY HEAD NED!!!**

**YAY I GOT YOU TO YELL AGAIN!!! VICTORY FANFARE!!! NED-NED-NED-NED__NED-NED__NED-NED-NED!!!! R+R R+R R+R R+R R+R OR I ANNOY THE LIVING NED OUT OF YOU!!!**


	9. Resolve in a Romance

Chapter 9: Resolve In a Romance

_"How did I get myself in this mess?"_ Sora asked, lying down in his usual place on the edge of island beach. Kairi was mad at him and he couldn't figure out how to cool her down. He looked back to what lead up to now, hoping to find a clue that can help him see a way through this problem. "Let's see... how did it all happen again?"

Sora had dialed Riku's number for the up-teenth time and the result was the same; just a machine lady apologizing for the number's inavailablility and asking for him to please dial again... again. Kairi stood there as Sora made a small ditch in the sand from pacing back and forth while dialing and listening to the answering machine. "Something's wrong, Riku would've answered by now." He said, pocketing his DSP. "Maybe he has no signal; come on and sit down, you're going to dig a hole into the ocean if you keep going like this..." Kairi said, patting on Sora's spot on the bent tree where all three of them would hang out on the island. With a nod, he sat down and rested his chin on his palm. Sensing his anxious mind, she pecked him on the cheek and rested her head on his shoulder. The warm sensation that followed the small weight on his shoulder brought his mind to some ease as he brought his right hand to her shoulder and he rested his head on hers. The sunset was always so beautiful on the islands, but the way it painted Kairi's face with its golden light made all Sora's attention focus on the beautiful **girl** instead. "Riku will call back, I know he will." Kairi said, her eyes closed with peaceful content as she reassured Sora.

"Well, aren't you just the cutest couple." The new voice made both teens jump and turn to see who had snuck up on them. They saw a man in a platinum white robe standing in front of the bridge that linked the main island to the smaller one where Sora and Kairi stood. "Who're you supposed to be? Some Organization XIII wannabe?" Sora asked, a smug grin on his face. A laugh sounded from the hollows of the stranger's white hood. "He was right, you are easy to predict. I definitely took you as the joking type." His head turned slightly to Kairi's direction, "You must his sweetheart, you certainly cute enough." As he took a step forward, Sora took a step in between them with his Keyblade in hand. Throwing his hands in the air, the cloaked man crowed a steady, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hey, easy there, Knight in Shining Armor. I'm not gonna take your girlfriend here,even though she is one of the Seven if I'm not mistaken?" He then took a small bow as if Kairi had been royally announced to an entire kingdom. Irritated, Kairi interjected, "What do you want here?" The stranger paused for a moment, then snapped his fingers and pulled a black envelope out of thin air. "I was asked to deliver this." He threw it to Sora, who caught it clumsily and didn't notice the cloaked man's quick and silent disappearance. Opening it, Sora expected a card or a letter, but instead he pulled out a small phone accessory with a small, black paopu fruit with a bat-like wing for the leaf. "This is Riku's..." Sora said with horror filled eyes. Kairi examined it closer, engraved on the other side was an S and a K which represented the both of them respectively. "It's not a fake, that's for sure." Said the white cloaked man as his head poked in between Sora's and Kairi's and his arms resting on their shoulders casually. Shoving him off, Sora glared at the stranger and demanded, "Where's Riku!? Who sent you here!? What's he planning!?" The cloaked man shrugged, "Dunno what my friend's planning, but he's NOT want anything to do with hurting your pals, got it? If you wanna go find Riku, then good for you, I won't have to..."

Then the sound of a nine tone fanfare broke the man's statement. "Uuuuuh..." Fanfare once more, then, " 'Scuse me." Fishing in pocket after pocket he finally pulled out a small round device and put in his hood and more than likely in his ear. "Hell-yo... what? You're joking right? But why me!? Okay, okay, okay, fine. Huh? Well, where you going? I dunno, the Spicy Special sounds good... Slaw? I'm not gonna eat it, you? Alright, fine; now the drink, uuuuh, surprise me. Alright, later." Pocketing the device, the man turned to see Sora leaning on his Keyblade with an annoyed look on his face. "Sooooooo..." The coaked one said, tapping the tips of his fingers together for a moment or two before a heavy sigh. "Looks like your coming with me... I'll be RIGHT here. Tomorrow. Bring what you need, got me?" That's when Sora had to laugh, "Why should we trust you? For all we know, this could be a trap or some lame kidnapping plot." The man was silent for a moment, but retorted, "Because if I wanted to kidnap you or Kairi," then he vanished and reappered with his right hand over Kairi's mouth and his other restraining her with an armlock, "I wouldn't have wasted my time. Now, do we understand each other?" Recieving a hesitant nod, he turned and opened a white gold rip in the air, then stepped over and into it with a casual wave good-bye.

_Three hours later..._

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T COME WITH YOU!?" Kairi exclaimed as Sora packed his things. "What I mean is that I can't have you hurt if there's a big fight." Kairi seethed, "That's not fair, Sora. I can protect myself well enough; I have a Keyblade and I learned how to fight from watching you and Riku." Sora turned around and held a tearing Kairi's shoulders firmly. "No means no, Kairi."

Sora opened his eyes, "Ugh, thats what... Why did I even say that?" She meant so much to him, the thought of her going with him brought back the memory of when Saix had her imprisoned. All because of the fact that she was close to him. But Kairi, she lost Sora... both of her friends... for well over a year! The worry, sadness, the lonliness... for that long? Sora felt like an idiot as all this sank in. He had to find her, he had to see her, he had to tell her... "Kairi, sorr-.. I'm... forgi-..." He panted heavily after a marathon of rowing, running, dodging pedestrians, tripping, falling downhill, knocking on the mayor's door, and catching his breath. Kairi was about to say something when Sora collapsed onto the floor, scaring her and her adoptive father. "WATER!!!!" He gasped as his head hit the floor, black squiggles* over his eyes. Kairi stifle a giggle as the mayor laughed. "You know, that boy never ceases to astound me. He apparently went to great lengths just to say sorry, Kairi." She nodded, then cradled Sora's head in her arms as her father stepped into the kitchen for a water pitcher.

Day had shone its first lights as Sora stirred from his dehydrated coma. As he sat up, Kairi had woken up before hand, judging by the tired look in her eyes as she smiled, "You lazy, crazy bum." Sora began a goofy grin, but it soon switched to a shameful frown. "Kairi..." Sora said sadly, "I... I was selfish... y'know, back at the islands. I never... I never thought about how you felt throughout that whole year Riku and I were gone until just a while ago. I'm so, so sorry, Kairi..." The sadness in his voice by itself showed how sincere he was about this. "Sora, I understand that you're worried about me, but I have you there right? And you'll have me to save you, too!" With a giggle, Kairi winked at Sora, who gawked then laughed with her as they began to make preparations... together.

"They're late." The white cloaked man groaned as he stood out on the edge of the island he had spoken to the two Keyblade wielders. Then his stomach began to turn and groan, "Ooooooh, I hate you so much right now." He said to no one in particular, as if expecting a witty comeback.

"There's one more thing we have to understand before we leave." Sora said as they approached the stranger's location. Kairi turned her head to his direction as they both stopped to sit down on a rock. "This is going to be hard. It's going to be rough and there will be some tight spots in between those times. Are you sure you want to come with me?" Kairi nodded, Sora continued. "Then you'll need to do something for me." Kairi listened intently.

"You'll need to be careful." Sora started.

"I will if you will." Kairi responded.

"You'll have to be on your toes."

"I will if you will."

"You'll have to kiss me."

"I will if you wi-mmph?"

Kairi stopped as Sora kissed her firmly on the lips; it was still the most amazing feeling she had ever experienced. Parting, Sora said, "Ready?" All Kairi could say was, "Huuuuh..." then blush at how silly she was acting. "You know, if you two weren't so cute, I'd be BEYOND annoyed at how long you made me wait!" The white cloaked man seethed calmly, popping some kind of indigestion tablet in his mouth and restraining a gag. "I take it that the Spicy Special is having it's revenge?" Sora asked sarcastically, Kairi doing her best not to laugh. "Unless you three are planning on planning getting a tan before you leave, I suggest we get going." Said another voice, this one belonging to a man in slightly silver studded black armor that covered his shoulders, left arm which had a silver, thin, rectangular box attached to the forearm portion that ran down to and around the wrist, chest and abdomen, from the knees down and an eye patch cover his left eye that also hid a menacing scar that poked out from under the upper and lower sides of the patch. Raven hair sank to his neck, a piercing blue eye that had a gaze that could almost pierce the soul and incinerate any will to oppose, and a face that boasted a calm and cool personality. On his back, Sora noticed a large, menacing red-bladed scythe and a single-edged longsword on the left side of his hip. It was clear this man knew how to use these weapons, despite his thin muscular build, and was not one to be taken lightly, which explained the stranger's behavior, "X-Xero! Uh-uh-uh, I didn't mean for it to take this long, it's just that-" He stopped as Xero, the mysterious warrior, rose his hand in a gesture of silence. "Forget it, Cayne has the ship ready, get them aboard and let's locate our next stop. Oh, and Saisei..." The stranger, in response to hearing his name, pulled down his hood to reveal a dark-haired boy slightly older than Sora and Kairi. "Don't order anything spicy if it's going to hurt your stomach." That did it; Sora and Kairi burst into laughter as Saisei gawked. "If you're done here, you two," Xero referred to Sora and Kairi, a serious tone in his voice,"We should get on board. One second wasted is one second less to catch up with Riku."


	10. Wow

Chapter 10: Wow...

Riku felt his ability to stand leave him as he tried to get up from a no less than intense swing from the Dark Stranger's black sword, curved and fogging with vile shadows as its edge slashed through the air. He felt every muscle in his body twitch with fatigue as Revrs attempted to keep his partner's body from turning into putty in the middle of battle. Gemerl defended against Eggman and his new Egg-so-suit armed to the teeth with hammers and rockets, so far he had the upper hand; blasting the missiles with his own weapons and the occasional melee on the rest. Sonic and Shadow, as strong as they were, amazingly had quite the chore of keeping up with Nazo, who imitated their tactic and created a large broadsword out of Chaos energy. As he swung, an X-shaped wave shot forward at the two hedgehogs, catching them by surprise. Sonic flinched, then felt the metal in front of his feet split open as a stone wall blocked the charging attack. His mouth agape at the strange occurence, he felt a warmth under his glove which made him inspect its source; a silver circlet with a small green sphere embedded on its surface.

_-Chip*...-_

**(*Chip was a bug-winged, chipmunk-like close friend of Sonic's in the all console game "Sonic Unleashed")**

He smiled before Caliburn interjected his thoughts, " Unless you intended on remaining on the defensive, might I suggest a LESS vulnerable position?" Sonic charged toward Nazo, then leaped high in the air as he brought Caliburn over his head and spun forward in a powerful spin-slash. Caught off-guard, Nazo was hit into Shadow's grip.

"Chaos CONTROL!!!" All stood still as Shadow spun around Nazo, a Chaos Spear replacing footsteps as the Black Blur covered every possible degree of every possible angle and deactivated the Control. Nazo was blasted at all sides as Sonic hit him with the broadside of Caliburn's blade.

" AAAAAARGH, Blast you wretched inferiors!!!" Nazo cursed, peeving the Sacred Sword, "I beg your pardon!? INFERIOR!? I, FOOLISH FABRICATION OF LIFE, AM A SACRED SWORD!! THE INFERIORITY IS WITHIN YOUR OWN SKULL!!"

Gemerl dove underneath the Egg-so-suit's foot and grabbed its ankle. With all the "oomph" his robotic body could muster, he lifted the suit up and pounded it on the ground and tore the entire lower half after hitting it so hard. Unfazed, Eggman activated the emergency boosters, making the suit hover over the ground.

"Prepare for your last upgrade, Gizoid; an upgrade into nothing but scrap!!" Eggman crowed as he fired clusters of rockets at Gemerl. Cockily, the robot simply leaped over them like he was playing a game of Leap Frog with Cream.

"C'mon, Egg-nut, you know I don't fall for that old trick." The Gizoid laughed, casually laying back against a half-shot-into-rubble wall. However, Eggman smirked with a sinister chuckle in his throat. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, this trick is as new as they come!" He pointed in the direction the rockets were headed; the place where the others were in hiding!!

"NO!! You monster!!" Gemerl kicked his jets on as he shot into the air, only to be grabbed by a claw from the Egg-so-suit's back. "The trick is called, 'Eliminate the pests' friends by making the Gizoid arrogant and get off his defenses.' "

Riku and Revrs fired Dark Firaga at them, only to be blocked by the Dark Stranger and shot back at them. Sonic and Shadow were too occupied being bashed by Nazo's endless assualt to do anything while the rockets continued their condeming flight. All seemed written in stone until...

"THUNDAGA!!!" Pillars of lightning shot through the rockets, making them explode several feet away from the others. As Tails and the others wondered at the bizarre turn of events, a duck in a blue suit and a wizard hat stepped alongside a mouse with a Keyblade in his hand and a tall dog with a shield in his. Sensing his old friend's presence, King Mickey called his name and sprinted towards the Egg-Tower. While Goofy kept watch, Donald made attempts to heal Sally, Hope, and Vanilla.

"Can you fix them?" Cream whimpered, her eyes filled with worried tears. Donald curved his beak into an assuring smile, "If I can't do it, then Riku can."

Riku brought Way to the Dawn and Oblivion down on Dark Stranger, making him flinch from the impact and provide an opening for two spin swings and a suplex from Revrs that shifted into a bear squeeze. "Geeergh, don't think... you have me beaten." Dark Stranger then warped out of Revr's hold and seven emeralds shot into the air from where he was. Seizing the oppurtunity, Nazo warped in between them and absorbed their endless power, causing him to writhe in power driven ecstacy.

"AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE ULTIMATE BEING!!! CHAOS... METEOR!!!!" Nazo laughed as he he rose his hands and created an expanding sphere of energy. After knocking Eggman into the stratosphere, Gemerl gawked at the large ball and muttered, "Oh, crap..."

**(Uh oh, DBZ much? And did i detect a hint of Hellboy too? :P)**

Expecting the worse, Shadow grabbed Sonic as Gemrl grabbed Riku and warped to the base of the tower, where they ran into King Mickey.

"Riku, boy am I glad you're alright. And..." Then the King saw Sonic and froze. "SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!! Riku, how in the world did you get to meet him!?" Riku opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Sonic pulling them all out the Chaos Meteor's blast range and back to where a dazed Donald had spent all of his strength makig the three girls concious, but thats as far as he got; they still had to stay within the canisters. Sonic looked at Sally with worry, "Are you alright, Sally?" The chipmunk smiled at him weakly, "Of course I am," then shivered, scaring the blue out of Sonic before she gave him another smile.

"Sorry to interrupt the moment, Sonic," Said a purple cat as she brandished a radiant-looking rapier. "No worries, Blaze, I'm sure he's glad we showed up when we did." Said Silver, unsheathing a weapon of his own, a triangular bladed sword that had a faint aqua marine glow in and around the blade. "Indeed, it would appear that our foe has yet to fight." Caliburn added, his gaze fixed on what remained of the Egg-spire. Above it was a very sinister, very powerful, very...

"Pink!?" Gemerl doubled over at Nazo's super form; it was surounded by halos of light and had a pink color hue on his body. "H-h-h-h-h-h-how lame i-i-i-i-i-i-i-is that!? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!" Unfazed by the Gizoid's criticism, Nazo simply waved his hand in their direction. Shadow flinched, "CHAOS CONTROL!!" and then everyone was warped to the inside of a building ten blocks away. "Shadow, what was-!!" Before Knuckles could get his answer, through the windows' view, a vast explosion completely covered the area they had once been and everything within four square miles of it.

"DO YOU SEE IT!? THIS IS THE POWER OF A DEITY INCARNATE!!! YOU WILL ALL PERISH!!!" Nazo echoed, his boasting soon followed by maniacal laughter.

Shade looked at the ground solemnly, "It is as if the past is repeating itself... The Chaos Emeralds destroyed my clan... and now they will destroy once more..." Everyone was silent, all that could be heard was Nazo's laughter as he leveled more of the city.

"INCOMPREHENSIBLE, THERE MUST BE ANOTHER OPTION OTHER THAN TERMINATION..." Omega buzzed as he looked on at the destruction and then to Rouge and Shadow. Rouge, who had her arms crossed over her stomach as Shadow had his eyes closed in deep thought. Then Knuckles slammed his fist into the wall, "NO WAY! IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE HOW IT ENDS!!?" Riku thought for a moment, "Is there anyway to even up with him?" At first, Sonic was doubtful, then he just remembered! "Caliburn, can you..." The Sacred Sword smiled, "Say no more, Arthur." and then began to glow. Shadow's Arondite, Blaze's Lavietein,and Knuckles' twin axe swords, Galatine, spun around Sonic as golden armor began to encompass his body. "EXCALIBUR!!!" Sonic and Caliburn bellowed as a golden blade-shaped light surrounded Caliburn. All of the amazing things Riku had seen outside of his world had not prepared him for this sight, a million thoughts buzzed in his mind and that could come out was, "...Wow."

Excalibur grinned, "Fool, we have only just begun to amaze!" then a small light appeared on Riku's finger; as it dimmed, a gold ring appeared. Sonic made a rubbing gesture on his own finger and Riku followed suit. A tan-skinned woman with red hair, pointed ears and a genie's attire appeared from the ring.

"You summoned me, O honorable Master?" Then she saw Sonic, "Sonic!? How have you been? You look so... shiny." Sonic smiled behind his closed helmet, "Its great to see you too, Shara. But I'm kinda in a jam, in case the attire doesn't say anything." Shara nodded, "Of course, Sonic. What do you need?" He hesitated, then Sonic said, " I need the Rings." and tilted his head in Riku's direction. With a nod, she summoned seven, frightening-aura-radianting rings that began to pulsate as they surrounded Riku. Slowly, his mind began to cloud with images from his past; Sora swinging a wooden sword, Kairi collecting thalassa shells, of Mom and Dad, being pulled through the darkness, fighting Sora, meeting the King, destroying Xehanort's Heartless, seeing Sora's sleeping form in Castle Oblivion's top floor, pulling off Xion's hood and seeing her face, Xion's asking him if he was angry for her taking his friend away, defeating Roxas with his dark powers unleashed, of Sora fighting by his side at long last, of himself?... no not himself...

During all of this, Riku's body began to flicker and Revrs became visible, to everyone's surprise. **"So I have to be the hero too, huh? Heh, fine. Just don't think you'll be an angel...when there's something like a devil in you!!"**

With that, Riku, and his conciousness with him, fell into the expanding darkness.


	11. Darkness and Chaos

Chapter 11: Darkness and Chaos

Thump-Thump, thump-thump, thump-thump

_**"Riku, please! You have to stop him!"**__ She kept remembering that last thing she had said to him, when he had confronted Roxas some unknown time ago. What should she say to him now; here he is, standing right in front of her, yet no words would go through her agape mouth. She looked up from the shadowy floor to where Riku stood, as if waiting for her to speak. "C'mon, Xion; it's pretty dark in here; I don't want you to get scared of the dark." He said, holding out his hand. Slowly, she stepped closer to take it, but felt herself being pushed away by an unknown force. She then saw Riku being pulled away by a completely black and grey being with yellow eyes and into a dark void, with the white-haired teen being completely unfazed and his eyes completely fixed on her like a statue. Running towards him, the effort being in vain as she her pace brought her nowhere even remotely close to him. All she could do was say one thing:_

_"RIKU!"_

Gasping for breath, struggling in the cocoon of darkness, Riku could do nothing as the cold eerie sensation swept over his senses. As for the others, they saw the shadows that had engulfed Riku harden into a black cocoon.

"IS THIS SOME KIND OF JOKE! WE COULD'VE WISHED NAZO INTO THE MIDDLE OF THE SUN, BUT NOOOOO! WE HAD TO MAKE A WISH WHERE RIKU HAD TO TAKE A NAP!" Knuckles ranted in a rage, Shade trying to calm him down. Shadow made a soft grunt at the flaring echidna.

"I really hate to say it, but you're right. Why on Mobius would we want to waste such a concept?"

Gemerl interjected, "Gee, I don't know. Maybe our blue, now clad in magic armor and holding a talking sword leader made a mistake by summoning a ring genie with powers? Hmm, now that's a tough one... Seriously, I don't know much about Super this and Excalibur that, but what I do know is that Sonic never fails to deliver the heroics, right?" Hearing this, Knuckles gave nod and Shadow merely scoffed. "And on top of that, these guys," He gestured to King Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, "Seem to know Riku better than us. If they think he can do it, then I think so, too." They all nodded, knowing that all they could do is make a plan and hope that Nazo doesn't...

"I seeeeeee youuuuuu..." Seethed an evil voice from outside the building. Everyone turned to see Nazo hovering outside, an menacing sneer on his face. Sonic lunged forth, Excalibur out in a powerful thrust. Nazo pinned the blade between his arm and chest, then held Sonic by the throat.

"Grrrgh!" The resulting sound was enriching to Nazo, he would take pleasure in obliterating this weakling in front the eyes of all who were close to him. Then something stopped him; he sensed something powerful nearby. He moved Sonic from his vision, seeing the black cocoon resonating a faint glow.

"Hmph, it would seem that whatever trump card you had is now useless. Allow me to take out the trash." He fired a single blast, aiming right at the dark object.

"No! Don't hurt Riku!" Cream cried, throwing herself in front of the blast of energy.

"CREAM, NO!" Sonic choked, muffled by a sudden explosion.

Cream had fallen on her face; something had pushed her, caught the blast, and somehow stopped it from harming anyone. Smiling, she turned, "Riku!" then her expression became a new one; one of shock and awe all in one.

A black, clawed hand poked out of an opening in the cocoon, which now appeared leathery and thin. It was lifted away and was revealed to be wings, four attached to the back of a slowly-being-consumed-by-darkness Riku. The only normal parts remaining were his head and the center of his chest. However, soon those parts had begun to change; Riku's chest took the form of a *heart **(*Like the keychain on Way to the Dawn)** outlined in red. The back of his collar opened bright yellow eyes of its own, the rest of the collar turning into the maw of a frightening creature that closed its jaws around what remained of Riku and began to tighten into a mask. Eyeholes formed to show Riku's once teal eyes now half and half with golden amber on the opposite sides.

With his transformation complete, everyone could see him clearly. He was encased in an armor unlike anything, metallic yet shifting like the shadows it was darkened by. The mask fit his hole head, also dark with a hole in the back where his silver hair flowed out like a mane and broad horn-like protrusions on the top of his head. Hollow breathing was all that could be heard as he stepped towards the edge were Nazo hovered closeby.

It was then that Nazo felt whole new sensation come from within. An urge, a result of instincts that told him that there was a much more powerful enemy before him; he wanted to escape! This feeling, this emotion had only one name.

"Fear? Why do I fear him? I have ultimate power, all the power of chaos and more! I FEAR NOTHING!" Nazo yelled, throwing Sonic into the side of the building and diving into Riku. Unfazed by the impact, Riku's wings outstretched as he pushed Nazo away and scissor kicked him in the neck. **"Darkness..." **he brought the summoning charm he had given Revrs, with the intent of using it. **"Vergil!"** A curtain of darkness surrounded the charm, then out stepped a man in a blue trench coat, white swept back hair, and a menacing katana in his left hand. He eyed Nazo with disgust,"Hmph, how boring..." he says, adjusting his collar and placing his hand lightly on the his sword's hilt.

***Click**

Vergil swung his sword in a flash, destroying the rings around Nazo. Then, he dashed forward, "Die..." flashed his katana once more; he had summoned small vortexes around Nazo's body, cutting him multiple times and made the Chaos emeralds fall away from him, reverting him back into his normal form. He then sheathed his katana, vanished, reappeared over Nazo, and hammered him further into the ground with swords made of energy. "Foolishness..." Shadow saw his oppertune moment and took it. He shot for the seven emeralds, began hovering right in their midst, and transformed into Super Shadow; his black fur slowly changing from black to platinum gold as his power increased beyond his normal threshold and Arondite transformed into a long black and red sword. "Witness the true power of the one and only ultimate life form! ROAR, DRAIG GOCH!" Shadow warped behind Nazo and slashed him multiple times. "CHAOS..." He wrapped his arms around Nazo and dove towards the ground. Upon nearing the end, "BLAST!" A large red explosion of energy erupted from where they landed. Fatigued beyond compare, Nazo began to limp towards Riku.

**"It doesn't matter how much power you have." **A cold voice emanated from Riku as Vergil vanished without a word. He picked Nazo up and tossed him outside where he caught himself and looked for Riku, who had vanished in an instant. **"If you don't have the heart to wield it..."** His echo sounded in all directions, confusing the imitation of life and making check all directions, except for one space; right behind him. **"You're gonna lose it all!" **He was then engulfed in an enormous orb of darkness. Inside, white and dark blue lights struck him at every possible side. Stunned by immeasurable pain, Nazo floated in the air in a daze. Before him hovered Riku, Way to the Dawn in his right and in his left was a Keyblade that was barely visible in its radiant glow. **"Time's up." **Riku said as his wings exploded into grey angel-like wings and he shot through Nazo's body, a black heart clutched in the cage of his claws.

The orb vanished, an armor-less Riku being pushed into the safety of Mickey and a normal Sonic's arms as a Revrs-shaped shadow consumed the black heart hovering in the air. Almost exactly afterwards, Nazo cried out one last time before shattering into dust and scattering into the wind. From a far distance, the Dark Stranger looked on at what had transpired. "That Keyblade..." He uttered before opening a Corridor of Darkness. "It constantly gives him power that should not be his!" His voice corroding with rage, he roared as he yanked his helmet off and threw it down the corridor. His amber eyes burning with rage and his silver hair bristling with fury, he seethed his anger through his gritted teeth and flaring nostrils, "IT SHOULD BE MINE!" Then he flashed on a satisfying thought; he had something he doesn't. "Yes... Of course..." He chuckled, picking up the discarded helmet and placing it in its rightful place as he stepped through the exit and into his domain. After typing a seven key code, he entered a small room with a large glass cylinder in the middle. Within he enclosed space was a girl with long raven hair submerged in clear liquid. "You will be the one to even out the scales with that miserable fraud..." Upon hearing a voice, the girl opened her eyes and set them on him. "Isn't that right, Xion?"

**FINALLY! I have the next chapter done! I have had so much drama going on that I couldn't do anything with my story. But now I have returned and my ideas are wired like dynamite! Just stick in the right places and light up! Wait a minute... NE-D! Have you been messing with the teleprompter again!**

**Revrs' Journal**

**Hey guys! Since I'm new here, I'll be Jiminy's equivallent and make notes and entries regarding the Path of Shadows storyline. Who knows, maybe you'll see into the future! That or melt your eyes... anyway, Here's the bits and pieces we'v covered so far!**

**Necromorphs-**

**Species category: Non-Human/?**

**World: Space Graveyard/ USG Ishimura**

**Description: An until-recently-long-dormant race, these creatures were sealed away by the Black Marker by an unknown force. The Black Marker was removed by a group called the Unitologists by their beliefs that it was connected to God and the creation of all existance. Soon after, the crews of the Ishimura began to wipeout each other and soon did the Necormorphs join the fray by inhabiting the bodies of the dearly departed. Virtually invincible and never the same in form or physical ability, the only way to eliminate them is through tactical dismemberment. These foul abominations first appeared in the Dead Space series.**

**Sonic the Hedgehog-**

**Species category- Neo- Human/ Blue Pygmy Hedgehog**

**World: Mobius/ Far away from Water... XD**

**Description: A worlds-famous hero that has recieved the respect of King Mickey himself with his selflessness and heroic deeds. With the nickname "The Blue Blur," he puts any other fast character to shame with his blinding speed and quick wit in even the most intolerable situations. He first appeared in the Sonic the Hedgehog series.**

**Shadow the Hedgehog-**

**Species category- Neo- Human/ Black Pygmy Hedgehog**

**World: Mobius/ The ARK**

**Description: Created to be the savior of humanity in the time of great calamity, this ageless and immortal hedgehog has been dubbed as the "Ultimate Life-form" by Prof. Gerald Robotnik and dear friend to Maria Robotnik, his creator's granddaughter. He has the ability to harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds and wield Chaos Control, which freezes time and allows Shadow to equal, if not surpass, Sonic's speed. After losing Maria before his very eyes, Shadow vowed revenge on the world. But after meeting Sonic and his friends, he chose to save it from the evils that threatened it, as were his creator's and Maria's wishes. He first appeared in Sonic Adventure 2 BATTLE**

**The Dark Stranger-**

**Species Category: ?**

**World: ?/?**

**Description: Has been seen almost everywhere Riku has gone with the power of darkness at his side and a mysterious story of actually knowing Riku. Who is this mysterious being? And how is it that he came to know our young Keyblade Master? Only time will tell... He first appeared... ?**


	12. A Crack Team of Crackpots

Chapter 12

**From this chapter forward, i will give this fanfic a bit more life by signaling anime moments. When you see sentences in italics and parenthesis, i.e. (**_**Cayne attempting to write his latest novel when Ned bounces into the scene and annoys Cayne. Nerves pop, eyes enflame, BOOM!)**_** Enjoy! Things are gonna get crazy!**

Sora and Kairi were on the deep end; their fate would soon be sealed! Their enemy smirked a sinister grin and, begged as they may and groveled as they might, laid their hopes to rest.

"MAHJONG!"

SLAP!

A small cat-human-chibi child* laid his final tile and won the last of Sora's munny. A man in a black hoodie-vest and chained arms sighed heavily, "I told you; Ned is a randomly prodigal genius. No one ever listens to the writer..." and then sipped his steaming drink. Ned was showering himself in the little crystals and making litle cat noises as he fixed his very large sleeves and oversized hood.

"I just can't get over how CUUUUUUUUUUUTE he is!"

_(Kitteh face Kairi squeezing little kitteh face Ned like a plush doll)_

Xero rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Yes, blows the mind..." Here's a look into Xero's usual routine:

Part 1: Wake up and check his data boards for any job requests from any potential clients.

Part 2: Check the kitchen for any of Ned's "pets" (such as a starved moogle, a half-plucked chocobo, or something like that) and then fix his breakfast.

Part 3: Cope with whatever Heartless on whatever world in whatever part of the GALAXY he is hired over to.

Part 4: Return with money and lunch.

Part 5: Catalog the money to equal shares amongst the boys and himself; eat lunch.

Part 6: Open a random book.

Part 7: Finish said book.

Part 8: Eat dinner.

Part 9: Think up a part 10.

And that's it, simple right? WRONG! And here's why:

1. Ned often uses his pancake mix on Xero's datapads and they get sticky!

2. When not cute little creatures, they are frightfully dangerous. (He once brought home one of the parasites from Cloverfield's body!)

3. He has the occasional encounter with "them" and returns home with near fatal wounds.

4. Saisei usually steals the money and gambles with it. (Did anyone ever mention his horrible luck!)

5. He usually ends up getting beefed into the job being an "act of kindness."

6. Cayne usually hogs the entire library and Xero has nothing else to do but other than think up a part 10.

7. Number 6, 'nuff said.

8. Cayne is a horrible cook. (Last meal he cooked tried to solve a stickerless Rubix Cube!)

9. Has no time between fighting at home and on the battlefield.

After recovering from his defeat, Sora walked up to Saisei and asked, "So what do you guys do around here anyway?" Cayne stopped sipping his drink to respond to Sora's question. "Do you know anything about the Flawed?" Xero stiffened at the mentioning, Ned stopped his munny bath and started to quiver in fear, and Saisei's face contorted in a mask of rage. Sora thought for a moment, then looked at Kairi, who shrugged, then shook his head. "Good." He said with a sneer, his memories going back to when their lives had been changed forever.

_Xero and the others had just gotten together for Croire's birthday. Croire was their closest friend since childhood and the most beautiful girl there was. Her long, flowing, hair and radiant eyes made the earth tremble. She was like the sea, beautiful and calm, yet a force to be reckoned with when pushed. Every man had begged for her hand, yet she turned them away. Her heart belonged to another, as he soon found out._

Sora listened carefully as Cayne and the others took turns telling how their world had fallen. Saisei, however, spoke the most about Croire. "She was going to be the most important woman in my life..."

_For three years they had been together, Croire and Saisei. Everyone in town said that their union would give them belief in second chances in life. Her birthday was coming soon, and he had the perfect plan: He would distract her while the others got everything ready. It would have the been the best bash in years._

Ned began the next part, a sad tone in his voice. Kairi held him as he spoke.

_We had never seen her so happy when Saisei showed her the ring. Cayne had written his best song for her, like he used to when they were young. I caught a little bird for her, alive and all the feathers in tact, just 'cause i thought she was that Xero gave her one of his best sketches. Little did we know that would be the last time we'd see her like that._

Xero's fist clenched, Saisei began to gritted his teeth and fight back tears as his friend told the final part of the story.

_They came quickly. Their bodies covered in red and violet as they stormed our world. They were the Flawed; the failed leftovers of trying to recreate a human heart after it had fallen to the darkness. We tried everything, but we only lasted less than an hour. When our world was destroyed, the four of us were seperated to different worlds. Saisei landed in Ivalice, where he had learned to create and control the magic known as Myst. Cayne fell into the land of Battleon, where he learned to control the power of Sound. Ned found himself in Toon Town, where he practiced pulling out random objects out of Hammer-Space. And I began my journey in The Four Nations, where I learned to manipulate metal from a young blind girl**._

"Once we were reunited, there was joy of course, but after knowing that Croire wasn't anywhere to be found, we could only assume the worst." Sora wiped tears out of his eyes; this had to be one of the saddest stories he had ever heard. Then he beamed, "How do you know she's gone?" There was a pause. "We looked everywhere, no traces or clues could be found..." Cayne said, his expression, once hopeful turned back to gloom. "Well, what if she hasn't been seen yet? Or what if she's hiding? Maybe she's waiting in some hidden world or secret place." Each suggestion brought Saisei's hope up even further.

"Sora, you may be a clueless sap, but by the Light, I'd say you have made the most sense yet!" Xero said, leaping off his chair and taking the helm. "Let's go find Riku. Something tells me that he'll be of some great use in finding Croire." At that, everyone jumped to their staions. "Alright, this is your captain speaking!" Xero bellowed, "It's come to my attention that we have yet to find our fair maiden. Are we about to let one stone be unturned!"

"NOOO!" Everyone shouted.

"Are you prepared to finally see Croire's smiling face again!"

"YEEEESSSS!"

"WHAT ARE WE!"

"WE ARE FIGHTERS!"

"WHAT WAS THAT!"

"FIGHTERS!"

"WHAT ARE WE CALLED!"

WE ARE..."

Then all yelled at once, "VANGUARD BRIGADE!"

"OKAAAAAY! LET'S DO THIS!" With that, the ship shot forward to Riku's last known location.

Saisei fingered a ring around his neck, "Croire, wait for me. I'll hold you again, soon enough."

*Croire is French for "to believe, have faith in," and Saisei is Japanese for rebirth, which can mean a second chance at life. See how they go so well together?

** Avatar fans rejoice! See if you recognise anymore.

**Sora's Journal:**

**Saisei**

**Species Category: Human**

**World: Haven City**

**Description: Though he appears weak, this man is much more to behold. Thanks to his training in Ivalice, he wields the powers of the mighty energy flow of Myst. Combining that with his skill in strategic combat and talent with a whip-sword and he is a deadly threat to any Flawed. This sardonic wisecracker first appeared in Kingdom Hearts: Path of Shadows.**

**Xero**

**Species Category: Human**

**World: Haven City**

**Description: The leader of the small crack team known as the Vanguard Brigade and a very accomplished pilot. He wields a sword and shield, and carries a mysterious scythe on his back, but rarely uses it. Some believe it belonged to a friend he had lost, as well as his eye, in the destruction of his world. In the world called the Four Nations, he learned to force metal to do his own bidding and eventually creat it all together. Often stoic and rarely humorous, he renders the Flawed opposition to their knees with his brutal strength. This fearless warrior first appeared in KH: POS.**

**Ned**

**Species Category: Human/ Cat? Fox? Can of Tuna!**

**World: Haven City**

**Description: Technical support and navigator of the group, this little guy has a very disarming appearance that hardly anyone could take seriously, let alone resist the urge to hug him to death! A whole new level of random, Ned is the ideal user for the powers of Hammer-Space he learned while in Toon Town; rumor has it he can create the most outrageous things that actually work, like a thermo-nuclear moose, a taser bologna sandwhich, or Ozzy Osbourne! This loose bag of tricks first appeared in a sugar induced coma.**

**Cayne**

**Species: Human/Fox**

**World: Haven City**

**Description: Closest of Ned's friends and a calm-minded fellow, he often spends his time in the library, also known as his room and apparently everyone's mess hall *X(. He uses whistling staff as his weapon and the power of sound he learned while he trained in the small town of Mythsong in the land of Lore. He had earned a reputation there and some had feared him for when he wears a blood red hood over his head and uses sound waves to create powerful attacks, thus earning the title: "The Sonic Reaper." He first appeared in KH: POS.**


	13. Two and a half hours later

Chapter 13: Two and a half hours later...

"Y'know, usually, when a chapter ends like the last one, alot of time would've passed before the next one starts." Cayne said, two and a half hours after the big pep talk last chapter. "And yet here we are, no clue where to start." Xero was racking his brain, Saisei was still burning with new enthusiasm while reading every single map and even cleaning off any stains to see if he could come up with something, and Ned was barking at a and Kairi both tried calling Riku but with no luck.

It was a few minutes after that the communications alert began to sound; Ned bounced over to the comlink and said, "Chicken Farm!" (Prepare for a description that I am borrowing from Halo Wikia, I did NOT write this, Got it Memorized?) On the other line was a man wearing the most bizarre armor Sora had ever seen: The helmet featured seven angular spikes, one to each side, a faceplate fused into a single plate and contour, the top rear guard was pointed thereby creating a single protruding spike, the bottom of the rear guard was fashioned like a neck guard similair to a samurai helmet's, and clips could be seen on the sides. The shoulder pauldrons were three metal plates arranged in an overlapped fashion, and the chest plate featured the pre-mentioned neck guard, as well as an angular strip of armor appearing to be strapped over the chest, featuring a small delta in the center.*

The man laughed Ned's little joke,"Well you've certainly stayed the same, is Xero there?" Ned spun in his chair, pulled out whistle, and blew heavily as a very loud, "HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE!" shortly followed. Finger in his ear, Xero put the communications earpiece in and began to speak with the man in black and steel grey armor.

"Any word on your end?" Xero asked.

"Thats a no-go, we've been combing every world so far within our jurisdiction, We have yet to ask the Sangheili Elites for their-, one minute." The soldier turned to yell at another man wearing green armor who had accidentally knocked a mounted turret into a fellow soldier's nose and made it shoot the poor soul's ear clean off. "1337, GET A MEDIC OVER HERE NOW!" He then turned back to Xero, "Sorry about that, anyway, you should contact Voro Nakar; he'll give you his side."

Cayne huffed at the name, earning the soldier's attention, "Hey, Cayne, how's the arm?"

"...Still twitches, Nine."

"Hehe, well you shouldn't have made that former Elite so angry."

"He was bad-mouthing my friends!"

"True, but he was marinated with God only knows what; could you blame him?"

"Well, regardless, where was Voro when this was happening?"

"Keeping the drunkard's buddies off your back so you could get your butt kicked by ONE sodden fool."

"..."

"Tell him I said 'hi,' okay?"

"Yeah..."

"Anyway, just keep on your toes; we had a smal outbreak of Flawed through here, so make sure you're locked and loaded wherever you may be."

Xero nodded, gave a two-fingered salute, and ended communications. "Ned, patch me into Voro's personal communications."

"Corndog!"

A few moments passed until the screened blipped and flashed. On its video feed was a reptilian humanoid creature with gold-amber eyes, a rounded head with lips that had a small tear in the middle as if to show it could split, and covered from head to toe in crimson armor, save for a helmet with a V-shaped visor tucked under his arm and gripped tightly by its tetradactyl** hand.

"Voro here," he said before squinting his eyes at Cayne. "Well, how have you been, old friend?"

Cayne twitched; he still calls him friend even after all that had transpired?

"It's been hectic lately; there's been no sign of Croire anywhere still."

Voro sighed,"Yes..." then quickly changed the subject seeing the sorrowed look in Saisei's eye. "I see you've picked up two new passengers." He then gestured to Sora and Kairi.

After the two introduced themselves, Voro lightly scratched the back of his neck in a gesture of thought. "Keyblade Master... I think I had heard a report come in from an intelligance squad regarding just that," Sora and Kairi looked at each other with hopeful expressions as Voro pulled up holographic maps onto the screen and traced them with his finger.

A few moments passed before he made a noise in between a laugh and a snort in success. "Here; a world called Mobius. Intelligance had picked massive energy waves going off the charts. One of them breach over..."

"HE'S A DEMOOOOON!" A small, dwarfish alien had appeared in the background; short stubby legs carrying him as he flailed his arms about frantically with two shining blue spheres."LALALAALALALALALALAALA KILL THE DEMON, KILL THE DEMON, KILL THE DEMON!"

"Voro, Martyr Unggoy incoming!"

"Hold your fire..." Voro said in a callous tone, rolling his saurian eyes as he picked up a small purple object and threw it over his shoulder. Just as the little beast stepped near Voro, the object opened up, projected a blue stream, shot the Unggoy high into the air and made it lose its grip on the two spheres. The creature soared through the air, now in a practical epileptic fit as he tried to figure out what was going on after the ignorance of near death had cleared from his mind. Voro yawned, his mouth outstretching into four individual mandibles and scaring the life out Sora and Kairi, as he whistled for a fellow soldier to bring its vehicle, calling it a Ghost, to him. He and two others attached similair spheres to its rear and kicked the vehicle into the object's stream, launching it right into the Unggoy's anitcipated fall trajectory. There was silence, save for a tiny, "Uh oh" and a hissing explosion, then a mass of hysterical laughter from the troops. Voro, however, wasn't laughing.

"IDIOTS!" He roared, grabbing the closest one by his lower mandible and throwing him into the ground. "It was this very carelessness that had allowed that Covenant wretch to get through! The life of a mercenary like myself is expendable, I have nothing to return to; the rest of you, however have sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, they all wait for your return despite of the sheer fact that the only time they will hear your name may be in the callings of the fallen ones! As long as I am here, you will be as vigilant as the Arbiter himself or so help me..." Voro hissed, pulling a device from his hip and igniting a bright blade from it to cleave the somehow still breathing Unggoy's head from its shoulders. "I will send you to the Forerunner's gates myself!"

Sora stared at the mixed emotions in Voro's eyes, a mixture of rage and concern the most obvious amongst them all. Calm passing through him, Voro returned to his message. "In short, we have seen a young man about your age and wielding a strange sword. Here are the coordinates, I wish you the best and hope you find what you are looking for. And see to it that Nine gets a smack in the helmet for me." He scoffed as he disconnected the uplink.

"Wow, is he always so intense?" Sora asked, earning a simple shake of Cayne's head.

"No, he is actually a good friend; he and Nine are actually best friends, despite that they were once enemies." This caught Sora's attention. He listened as Xero piloted their ship towards Mobius and where Riku would be waiting for them, hopefully without being upset about them leaving the Islands.

"Nine, along with several other of his fellow soldiers,were part of a independent, secret strike force known as the Vanguard probably guessed that's where we got our name from, we were trainees once but Ned was added into the mix." Ned made exploding noises as Cayne cleared his throught. "Anyway, they had just entered combat when they were ambushed by the Flood, a parasitic life form that can multiply itself and take over anything it touches. To make matters worse, several Covenant soldiers had entered the fray, so it was like adding wood to a fire. Humans scorching Flood, Brutes and Elites Needling Humans, and Flood consuming the latter. The area around them was very unstable and had gotten Nine seperated from his friends while Voro was the last of the Covenant survivors. The both of them were pitted against each other as much as they the Flood. It was just them, a storm raging, nothing rivaled the howling of the wind or the blasts of thunder save for the roars of the ever nearing Flood hordes."

Kairi was leaning into Sora, practically visualizing themselves on the battlefield as Cayne painted the very world into their minds. As Sora continued to be amazed, he saw a sea-salt ice cream offered to him and Kairi.

"Hey, thanks Riku!" Sora took it and began enjoying the salty sweet dessert as Cayne continued his story. Good old Riku, he always made good things awesome... wait a minute.

"RIKU!" Sora and Kairi dove into Riku, "What happened to you! Were you hurt! Is everything okay! WHAT IS MY FAVORITE COLOR!"

"Okay, okay, okay! It's alright, I'm fine! Now lets just finish up this story, this guy's got me entranced." Riku said, sitting down next Sora and elbowing him with a smirk as he relaxed. Cayne, smiling as well, continued his story without missing a beat.

"As they distanced themselves from their approaching enemy, the two had come to the conclusion that they had to work together. Nine and Voro managed to create their own ambush plan to eliminate their pursuers for good. They made base camp near an abandoned armory, packed with Covenant weapons and explosives. When they arrived, a third of the Flood ranks were wiped out in moments. In panic, the stragglers began to run about, providing the perfect time for Voro to go in. He took out a plasma sword,paired it with his wrist mounted plasma dagger, and took out several flood at once with blood lust in his eyes. Nine, then, swooped in on a Brute Chopper and mowed down groups with its mounted blades and guns. A Brute Flood managed to grab him and fling him over onto his side, but he got up and dug his knife into its makeshift head. He unpinned a spike grenade, buried it into place, and launched the cretin into its fellow abominations with a gravity hammer. However, Voro was there when it landed, so Nine sprinted forward and shoved him out of the way as nearly fifteen or so needles dug into his armor. The rest of the flood where annihilated, but Nine was badly hurt; even after his armor blocked most of them, there were some that drew blood and alot of it. Voro stood over him with a plasma rifle his hand, Nine simply looked down as he realized that he was finished. However, he felt himself being hoisted by Voro as they slowly walked away from the slaughter. The next time they fought alongside each other were as mercenaries and partners soon after. What went down from there is a story for another time."***

"SOOOOOOOOOORRRRA!" Goofy cried as he death-hugged the teenager's neck, his face turning blue every second. "I've. Never. Been. So. Happy. To. See. You. In. My. Whole. Life! Ahyuck-uh-huh-huh-huh-huuuuck!"

"Goofy... it's good... seeing you too... but I can't breathe..."

"OOPS!" He said, dropping Sora like he had just burst into flames.

Donald quacked irritably at the his towering canine friend, "Goofy, you have to be more mature than that." A few seconds passed, "SORA, I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!" Donald cried, squeezing Sora until he was as blue as Donald's wizardry robes. Trying her hardest not to laugh, Kairi pried the tearing fowl away and blessed Sora with the sweet gift of oxygen.

"Your Maj- er, Mickey, how did you know where I was?" Riku asked, still amazed that Mickey had shown up when he did.

"Well, Riku, I'm not really sure; all I remember is getting a very strange message saying you were in danger and that I should hurry before something awful happened." Mickey said, showing him the letter and envelope that Pluto had given to that day. "Gosh, I wish i knew more to tell ya. Are you sure that you'll be alright?"

"Yeah. It would be better if you went back to the castle, anyway; you and Minnie have been together as long as me and the others have been back on the islands. Since Sora and Kairi are here, I'll manage. But keep me posted on whatever comes up about that message. I have the feeling that this "Dark Stranger" has some kind of connection to it or something..."

A few hours later, in the void of space and after the King and Co. had set for their home

"So where do we go from here?" Revrs asked, poking Sora's shadow.

"Hey, I can actually feel that! Do Kairi's!" Revrs was more than happy to do so.

"HEY! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, S-S-STOP, THAT TICKLES HAHAHAHAHA!" Kairi squealed.

Riku was amazed that everyone took Revrs so well, even he was a bit skeptical about him. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy must've explained everything that he had done to Riku or maybe Sonic did... trying to understand it gave him a headache, he was still dazed from the battle with Nazo. Whatever Revrs did to him to match that level of power must have strained his body and caused him to black out, just like on the Ishimura...

He turned to look at Revrs, who was sitting down calmly as Ned bounced on his head.

_Just what are you?_

_**I'll explain soon, but not right now...**_

_How can you expect me to trust you if you're keeping secrets!_

_**One, it's very complicated and revealing it would make this a very short Fanfiction.**_

_What are you babbling on about!_

_**We're about to have company...**_

Riku opened his mouth to retort when the whole ship shook.

Xero cursed as he gripped the ship's controls tightly after getting back in his chair, "Mierda, its a Flawed Interceptor; it must have been following us after we picked up Riku."

_We'll talk about this later; and I mean it!_

_**Yes, Mother...**_

Riku bit back a loud insult that would've made him look odd in his friends eyes and dove into a console and donned a headset. "I have several smaller energy readings on my scanner, I'll bring them up," his fingers flew across the interface like moths in the lamp light until he flung a pale blue square at the cockpit window. "and we got cannon fodder."

"Judging by its speed, this Interceptor must be carrying two, maybe three, thousand Howlers," Cayne said, magnifying two images on the screen; one being the large ship and the other the smaller, fighter-sized one. "Ned, get those Chain Streams online. Sora, Kairi, help Riku and get on one of these consoles and monitor our surroundings; if you see any red blips in one of these coordinate sectors," Cayne pointed to each square on the screen, "simply say the letters and numbers and Ned will let 'em have it! There is one problem, though; the shields pull up each shot we use so that the cannons can cool off and recharge. If you wait until the enemies group together and THEN call out the coordinates, the shot'll rip the whole group a new one! Keep that in mind and this be a cakewalk. Once these small fries are done, we'll go head to head with the big guy! Let's get going, BATTLE ON!"

"..." Everyone the three looked at Cayne as if he had just spoken in alien.

"Errm, nevermind; just something a few friends of mine say now and then before a big battle, to get the blood pumping, y'know?"

Sora looked at his friends, smirked, and then all three said in unison, "BATTLE ON!"

**Whew, finally, I apologize in advance for such a long wait; I have CNA classes now and alot of crap going on. I probably lost alot of precious readers because of this and I hope that I hear from at least one of them to prove me wrong. An epic battle is coming soon, but what has the Dark Stranger been up to? And does HE have any info about Croire? Stay on the dot and I swear to you, loyal readers, that I will reward you with many laughs, roars, (cries?), and randomness of course to meet your needs. Want a cookie? :3**


	14. Author's apologies and compensations

An author's apology and compensations

My most cherished fans and readers,

I wuld like to say that i apologize for my absence. My computer was an acer during my entries and i finally paid for it. But! I now have an HP with Windows 7 and so many action and romance ideas that its a wonder of the media world that im not getting paid for them all! I thank you for your patience and, in one week's time, you will be immensely rewarded.


End file.
